the visit to Ganjigal by then Corporal Meyer’s embedded training team and members of the Afghan army was supposed to be a peaceful mission to talk to the village elders. However, it proved to be an ambush, with Taliban fighters hiding throughout the village immediately opening fire on the group as they approached the village.
While Meyer and an officer, Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, remained with their Humvees, other members of Meyer’s team entered the ravine and were immediately attacked by the Taliban, and radio contact with team was lost.
After learning that the team was trapped and others could not go to try and rescue them due to the heavy fire, Meyer and Chavez made repeated trips into the firefight. With Chavez driving and Meyer manning the machine gun, they rescued several wounded Afghan soldiers and taking out a number of Taliban fighters.
Finally, on their fifth solo trip into the ravine, they were able to locate the missing members of Meyer’s team when a helicopter pilot saw them and dropped a smoke grenade near their location. However, the team had been ambushed and all were dead.
Meyer, who had been wounded by shrapnel on one of the previous trips into the ravine, made four trips through a hail of gunfire to bring out his fallen comrades: Gunnery Sgt. Edwin Johnson, Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, 1st Lt. Michael Johnson and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class James Layton. After recovering the bodies of his teammates Meyer escorted them to Forward Operating Base Joyce located about a mile away.
1st Dakota Meyer got MoH, 2nd Cpt Swenson (amended title)
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