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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / “The Case of Dakota Meyer”

“The Case of Dakota Meyer”

by Anne Laurie|  December 10, 20117:30 pm| 41 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Military

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(Doonesbury via GoComics.com)

__
Nothing I can add, but I wanted to share Amy Davidson’s New Yorker post:

… Meyer became the first living Marine since Vietnam to receive the Medal of Honor. At the White House ceremony, President Obama, with whom Meyer had shared a beer the previous afternoon, talked about how “down to earth” he was:

When my staff first tried to arrange the phone call so I could tell him that I’d approved this medal, Dakota was at work, at his new civilian job, on a construction site. He felt he couldn’t take the call right then, because he said, “If I don’t work, I don’t get paid.” So we arranged to make sure he got the call during his lunch break. I told him the news, and then he went right back to work. That’s the kind of guy he is…. Dakota is the kind of guy who gets the job done.

Why, though, was Meyer working a construction job? That turns out to be a complicated story…

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Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    eemom

    December 10, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    Trudeau is a fucking genius. Forty years and still going strong.

  2. 2.

    Raven

    December 10, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    Guess ya’ll don’t know about Ira Hayes. Johnny Cash will explain it.

  3. 3.

    Julia Grey

    December 10, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    Forty years and still going strong.

    Well, he did take an extensive break — and then came back nicely refreshed.

  4. 4.

    amk

    December 10, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    @eemom: +1. Have been ‘reading’ him for a quarter century now.

  5. 5.

    piratedan

    December 10, 2011 at 8:07 pm

    gotta love those military contractors….. I know that they aren’t all bad, corrupt, malevolent and evil, but I sure wish that their transgressions got as much pub as is given welfare cheats and voter fraud does.

  6. 6.

    cathyx

    December 10, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    @piratedan: Do you call yourself Piratedan because you are into pirates? I went to a pirate store this summer. Apparently there are many people who are into pirates.

  7. 7.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    December 10, 2011 at 8:20 pm

    They were talking about this on MJ a couple of months ago, and one of the guests was talking about a friend of his interviewing for a job (I cannot remember the guests name but he is an Afghan/Iraq vet officer). He said his friend told him that the HR moron read the military officers resume, and then said to his friend “but have you ever had a real job?” The vet just didn’t know what to say to the genius no doubt MBA grad behind the desk. Whatever you say about MJ they frequently point out (Mike Barnacle in particular) only 1% of the population of this country are invested in the war in terms of people serving. The rest of the country couldn’t give a shit about the soldiers or what happens to them when then come home.

  8. 8.

    Soonergrunt

    December 10, 2011 at 8:23 pm

    @piratedan: Sgt Meyer’s treatment at the hands of his former employer is sadly not limited to Defense contractors.

  9. 9.

    piratedan

    December 10, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    @cathyx: readers digest version of how I got my moniker… I love music, fondly reveled in the first wave of the 70’s new wave/punk movement. Decades later on in corporate America while in my cubie village I was a frequent caller to an 70/80’s radio show, but my stuff was never played. When I started using a pirate voice to make my requests, suddenly my entire call was being replayed as well as the music requested. I became a “regular” and as such, was referred to by said handle around the office.

  10. 10.

    B W Smith

    December 10, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    @Raven: I saw the movie “The Outsiders” with Tony Curtis years ago. I’m sure they took some liberties with the Hayes’ story but I remember it being very sad. I think he had problems with what would now be diagnosed as PTSD, but there also seemed to be a lot of survivor’s guilt. Our military and the whole MI complex uses these heroes for their purposes and so easily cast them aside, all the while admonishing the rest of us to support our troops during war time. After all, that’s how they make their money.

  11. 11.

    piratedan

    December 10, 2011 at 8:28 pm

    @Soonergrunt: I know that Sooner, just when compared to the other stuff that has gone on, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, in the name of our nation that those asshats have received (perceived anyways) as much protection as Wall Street for their transgressions. I will go on the record as stating that I loathe HR departments everywhere.

  12. 12.

    Soonergrunt

    December 10, 2011 at 8:29 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: When I got out of the Army the first time, we had a transition program that involved resume writing and interviewing. It was a week in civilian clothes and it covered everything from how to behave at an interview, to how to describe military experience in terms a civilian can understand. Obviously the guys who had technical MOSs could write resumes that could get them a job, because a diesel mechanic is a diesel mechanic is a diesel mechanic.
    Trying to turn infantry into something that an HR person understands, however–not easy.

  13. 13.

    Raven

    December 10, 2011 at 8:29 pm

    @B W Smith: Of course, Flags of our Fathers was about him and the other Iwo flag raisers as well.

  14. 14.

    Raven

    December 10, 2011 at 8:33 pm

    @Soonergrunt: When I got out of the Army we sat on a concrete floor in Oakland Army station for three fucking days after flying home. They gave us a steak dinner when we arrived and that was about it. Started college 10 days later and got to work as a night janitor in a dorm to supplement the meager GI Bill payments. Built character.

  15. 15.

    J

    December 10, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: What do you mean? the bastard who slandered Meyer and his cronies are heavily ‘invested’ in the war. How else to drum up contracts for their whiz-bang weaponry.

  16. 16.

    B W Smith

    December 10, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    @Raven: I’ve not seen Flags of Our Fathers, an oversight on my part. I think he also played himself in the John Wayne movie, Sands of Iwo Jima, but I may have that confused. BTW, the Tony Curtis movie is The Outsider, no ‘s’. Hayes’ story just proves that treating vets like crap is not a new phenomenon. We have a long history.

  17. 17.

    Raven

    December 10, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    @B W Smith: “Flags” is ok but “Letters From Iwo Jima” is better. It’s the Japanese side of the battle that Clint filmed.

    http://iwojimathemovie.warnerbros.com/lettersofiwojima/framework/framework.html

  18. 18.

    Mike G

    December 10, 2011 at 8:45 pm

    Our military and the whole MI complex uses these heroes for their purposes and so easily cast them aside

    Particularly the chickenhawks who love to use soldiers and military imagery to justify political points — but it’s always a cardboard-cutout image of servicemembers and their experiences. What soldiers get from many Repukes is not support but cheap rhetoric.

    Should a soldier mention problems with conditions, PTSD, medical treatment or the VA, be unphotogenically disabled or, Jeebus-forbid, question a war, then they are rejected for not living up to the John Wayne image.

    Of course, use-and-discard is pretty much the Repuke model for corporate employees as well, without even the cheap praise tossed to servicepeople.

  19. 19.

    cathyx

    December 10, 2011 at 8:49 pm

    @piratedan: So do you dress like one too?

  20. 20.

    piratedan

    December 10, 2011 at 8:51 pm

    @cathyx: when I did the guest gigs on the radio, yes I did….

  21. 21.

    Kyle

    December 10, 2011 at 8:53 pm

    @B W Smith:

    ‘The Best Years of our Lives’, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1946, deals with similar issues for returning veterans after WW2. It replays occasionally on AMC.

  22. 22.

    Yutsano

    December 10, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    I have my opinion about this, but it always comes back to Meyer shouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place. The mission itself was a Charlie Foxtrot that will be swept under the rug because a Dawg did what Dawgs do best. That infuriates me more than anything.

  23. 23.

    Soonergrunt

    December 10, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    @Raven: Getting demobilized as a reservist is not much different. With the exception of keeping everybody in a facility that looks like a prison–literally, with concertina wire-topped cyclone fence surrounding the buildings out on the edge of the range complex at Fort Carson, electronically controlled gate and everything.
    5th Army Division West–the command that manages reserve and guard forces west of the Mississippi– treats you like shit from the moment you arrive back stateside until you leave, DD214 in hand. They do give you a cold McDonald’s Quarter Pounder and fries and a warm coke when you land, and an overcooked piece of cheap, tough beef that is vaguely like the steak they claim the night before you leave, so there is that.

    Funny thing–the Quarter Pounder, cold as it was, tasted like fucking ambrosia.

  24. 24.

    cathyx

    December 10, 2011 at 9:04 pm

    @piratedan: You do realize that nobody can see you on the radio, right?

  25. 25.

    Raven

    December 10, 2011 at 9:05 pm

    @Soonergrunt: I’m not surprised by any of that. But, hey, people say “thanks for your service”!

  26. 26.

    Soonergrunt

    December 10, 2011 at 9:07 pm

    @Yutsano: The former Army Captain who was there with Sgt. Meyer has, at the insistence of the Marine currently commanding CENTCOM, been formally recommended for the MOH. He was initially denied any recognition at all, likely because he complained to anyone who would listen about the denial of indirect/CAS.

  27. 27.

    B W Smith

    December 10, 2011 at 9:09 pm

    @Kyle: Thanks, I’ve actually seen it a few times, but it’s been a while. I may have to see if I can find it on cable sometime soon.

    @Raven: Thanks, I’ll check both out sometime soon.

    My dad’s oldest brother was a paratrooper in WWII and my dad served in Korea. They both finished their duty, came home, and I never heard either talk about their respective wars. I always wondered what it was like for them, but they never wanted to discuss it. They were both adamant about their sons not serving in the military.

  28. 28.

    piratedan

    December 10, 2011 at 9:09 pm

    @cathyx: yes….. but let an old man hold onto his dream can’t you? ;-)>

  29. 29.

    Raven

    December 10, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    ESPN has a special on Todd Marinovich on. Must see.

  30. 30.

    Soonergrunt

    December 10, 2011 at 9:11 pm

    @cathyx: It helps him get in the mood, I’m sure.

    @Raven: Yes. That ALWAYS helps.

  31. 31.

    Raven

    December 10, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    @B W Smith: It sucked. Read
    The Real War by Paul Fussell about WWII.

  32. 32.

    Raven

    December 10, 2011 at 9:14 pm

    @Soonergrunt: When the Iraq Vet at Ft Stewart said that to me I wanted to say, “man I appreciate that but, just between us, you do think it’s bullshit don’t you”? But I didn’t, he was a nice kid and I didn’t want to fuck with him.

  33. 33.

    Yutsano

    December 10, 2011 at 9:15 pm

    @Soonergrunt: I watched the video where Meyer described what happened in his words. If he had been allowed to go in when his instincts told him to (which was a lot sooner in the operation before he told his commanders to fuck off) he might not have been pulling bodies out. That had to have been tough for him and the captain.

  34. 34.

    Chuck Butcher

    December 10, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    It infuriates me when the word “hero” is devalued by applying it recklessly, you cannot use the same word to describe Myers and some generic cop on a beat. To be sure, not every act of heroism merits a MoH.

  35. 35.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    December 10, 2011 at 9:41 pm

    @Raven: One of the best books ever written, bar none. Also, The Great War and Modern Memory, by Fussell.

    My grandpa fought in WWI (mustard-gassed in France), tried to keep his sons from fighting, but there they were in Korea. He eventually died at 68 of COPD. I always wondered how much the gas had to do with that.

  36. 36.

    fuzz

    December 10, 2011 at 10:08 pm

    The book by Sebastian Junger, “War” and the documentary, Restrepo, that followed touched on this a little bit and I remember they had a good quote about how the guys in that unit (Sal Giunta the MOH winner was one of them) thought of heroism. Being called a hero was odd because it was something that they felt they absolutely had to do, it would be like calling a parent that braves danger to save their child a hero, they are, but to them the idea of saving their friends was more reflexive than anything else.

    I remember there was also a good quote in that book that I think an officer told his men, he told them “signing up for this is the heroic act. Everything else is just part of the job description.”

  37. 37.

    John Weiss

    December 10, 2011 at 10:32 pm

    War, what is it good for?
    Absolutely nothing.
    Sing it again.

    Fucking waste of human lives, treasure and resources. Bringer of nothing but grief.

  38. 38.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 10, 2011 at 11:18 pm

    @cathyx: Method acting.

  39. 39.

    Tehanu

    December 11, 2011 at 2:22 am

    @Soonergrunt:

    Trying to turn infantry anything into something that an HR person understands, however — not easy fucking impossible.

    There. FTFY. All HR departments are Satanic, except the one at my current job, which is Satan. Himself.

  40. 40.

    Comrade Carter

    December 11, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    Uh, it’s probably not the best for him, but…

    What’s the deal with a construction job? It IS a job, after all. There’s enough of us, me for example, who don’t HAVE a job.

  41. 41.

    Soonergrunt

    December 11, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    @Comrade Carter: There’s nothing wrong with construction work. But I’ll bet he was making quite a bit more money working for BAE and the subcontractor. THAT’s what was denied him by this slander he alleges.

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