A Kentucky Boy Receives the Medal of Honor

Most little communities in this area have festivals. My county actually has two; the Pumpkin Festival in the fall and the Blueberry Festival in June. Green County, which is the county next to us has Cow Days. This Saturday the Grand Marshall of Cow Days will be someone who has been in the news a lot this week. His name is Dakota Meyer and today he visited President Obama to receive a Medal of Honor.

Just in case you live in a cave without television, the Internet, or a radio. Here’s a short summary.

Two Years Ago in Afghanistan….

Two years ago Dakota was a Marine fighting in Afghanistan when he heard small arms fire in the distance and realized there had been an ambush. Meyer was only 21 years old at the time. He asked permission to go help the stranded troops and was denied. He went anyway and for the next six hours he and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez faced mortars, rocket propelled grenades and gun fire as they went in and out of enemy fire five times. On the final trip it turned out that the troops they were trying to rescue were dead. Dakota retrieved the bodies and brought them back to base.

Was Dakota scared?

“Dakota later confessed,” the president said, of the fighting in Ganjigal, that “I didn’t think I was going to die. I knew I was.”

But he didn’t die and today he received his medal.

I don’t know if Dakota has ever watched the movie Sgt. York, but if he hasn’t, he should. He and Alvin have a lot in common and I admire them both.

What is Courage?

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”

Dakota Meyer did the right thing even when it meant disobeying orders and risking his life and he was only 21 years old. I don’t know him personally but I’m guessing his family is beyond proud of him and this Saturday at Cow Days, I bet the whole county will be there to cheer him on.

I won’t make it to Cow Days (Sorry, Dakota, my granddaughter is coming for a visit) but as an American, a Kentuckian and your neighbor, I want to say “I admire you. I thank you and while I don’t have a Medal of Honor to give you, if you’d like a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies, come on over. You deserve them.”

“/>