That’s the thing. (He’d asked if, at the same time he got his medal, there could be ceremonies for them, too.) If they succeed or not, then that’s their destiny. The war continues, and it’s hard to say why.

DM: It’s a huge asset. Since 9-11, we’ve been in the longest war we’ve ever been in. BVR: When you had a beer with the President, what did you guys talk about? So, our mission going over there to Iraq and Afghanistan was basically the same. I think that’s why. That turns out to be a complicated story. Do you feel in any way betrayed by some of his criticism of you? Late last year, Swenson was finally awarded the Medal of Honor, an outcome that Meyer was pleased with, saying the captain’s bravery that day needed to be recognized. I mean, just look at the controversy mine has come under. BVR: Did you two talk about the wars at all? He had left the active duty military and hit what he has since called his personal “rock bottom,” including a suicide attempt. The fifth and final time he went in on foot, and finally made it to the trench where his four friends had been trapped. DM: They should do that anyway, because these men and women are fighting and sacrificing for their freedom. There’s a huge gap in veteran employment and veterans being able to integrate back in society, so one of the biggest places we think we could help is by helping them get employed, and that’s what we’re trying to go out and do. If it’s not, if you drive off from this place, don’t ever look back and do it again, and go make a difference. I didn’t kill enough and I didn’t save enough. Our country, with the help of firms like BAE, has armed Pakistan’s military, even as the Pakistanis have helped people fighting our own troops, and put our weapons to uses at which we can only guess. POTUS 2024.” 2016 is approaching quickly. I think that’s the greatest of our generation. Though Meyer has praised Swenson’s heroism and publicly lobbied for him to receive the Medal of Honor, according to a 2013 Washington Post report Swenson "remains skeptical of Meyer and the publicity he has sought," and has "engaged in a lengthy and bitter dispute with the military over the narrative of [the Battle of Ganjgal]."

Believing in it. So I just asked him, what does it take to be successful? Well, I’m a veteran, too, and people ask me, if we get into a conversation about these things, people ask me if I think the Iraq War was worth it. And so they had to coordinate it. It’s all of ours, because our relationship with Pakistan does not, at the moment, make a whole lot of sense.

BVR: I guess the trade off would be that the country as a whole feels more invested in the war. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. BVR: Where do you think that fits in? BVR: That ties in to the work you are doing these days with Toyota and Hiring Our Heroes. BAE has extensive experience employing veterans, and even has a program for those who have been wounded, as Meyer was. No way.

This interview has been edited for order and clarity. His patrol, with two Afghan Army platoons, was headed to a meeting in a village called Ganjgal one day before dawn in September, 2009, when they were ambushed. It wouldn’t even, strictly speaking, just be BAE’s. It’s like a fistfight—there is no win. I think where they are opening it up for trade schools, that is starting to help out more because, just like myself, I went into the Marine Corps because I didn’t want to go to college. Our veterans are the greatest of the generation. He paused.

“I checked them all for a pulse,” he wrote in a handwritten statement for military investigators, obtained by the Marine Corps Times, but the “bodies were already stiff…. Meyer’s heroic actions in Afghanistan serve as a reminder to all our employees of why we do what we do at BAE Systems—to help bring the men and women of our armed forces home from the battlefield safely…. Do you feel like you’re in a totally different place now? Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 1/1/20) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 1/1/20) and Your California Privacy Rights. Where we live at, where our kids go to school, what we eat, what lifestyle we live, depends on the income we bring in, and being able to provide for your family, and that’s your employment.

That’s on them. BVR: Fair enough. There are other kinds of abandonment in the story, too, and many other questions, going back to the ambush itself, and earlier.

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.

So I think, if they’re going to classify that shooting as PTSD, then they need to have a different classification for what most veterans have when they come home from war. “60 Minutes” profiled him. He began working for a military subcontractor called Ausgar, as a trainer. How do you get to be where you’re at? I wasn’t out there trying to click, trying to keep stats. Unless you just hit somebody and knock them out, but there’s still no win.

HuffPost is part of Verizon Media. Meyer is described in the following way; A small, flat-nosed Jew raised his large head and regarded me with two fine growths of hair which luxuriated in either nostril. The only statement that wasn’t used in that was my own. BVR: Do you think finding employment is one of the biggest challenges facing new veterans? “I feel that by selling this to Pakistan we are doing the exact opposite. Just because one person relives an account differently. They said, “Well, you know, the President is busy right now. Too many politicians and private companies have simply looked away, or looked for a profit. Dakota is the kind of guy who gets the job done. I told myself, when I heard the drop of the hammer, look. With Iraq, I will say that we did kill the 21st century Hitler.

Marine Corps veteran who became the 2nd-youngest living Medal of Honor recipient in September 2011 for his valor at the 2009 Battle of Ganjgal. Dakota Meyer Corps Values, Core Values Potential employers want to hear about a candidate's personal accomplishments and triumphs in an interview - but veterans are taught to view their successes as a result of team rather than individual efforts. After Meyer “made his views known,” according to the suit, McCreight “began berating and belittling” him, “taunted” him, and, as his Medal of Honor nomination worked its way through the system, “sarcastically and disdainfully ridiculed what he called Sgt. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. What that man did on Fort Hood is psychotic. DM: No. DM: Whether people agree with his politics, whether you’re Republican or Democrat or anything else, at the end of the day the man still became president because he’s the best man. The medal was given on all eyewitness accounts. During his second deployment, to Kunar Province, Afghanistan, a 2009 ambush near the village of Ganjgal left three Marines and a Navy corpsman missing. As much as we hate to say it. He got in touch with Tom Grant, his manager at Ausgar, who said he’d be glad to have him back. Meyer’s ‘pending star status.’”. Obviously it’s a huge—. Photograph by Richard Perry/The New York Times. Maxim asked him to be a military consultant. being a veteran is a risk factor for homelessness. Does anyone know what happens to them if one manager, on the phone with another, makes a remark about drinking, or instability, or what everyone supposedly knows about what combat does to a person? It depends on what Americans want to call a win or loss. A native of Kentucky, he enlisted in 2006 shortly after graduating high school and the next year was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq. If you really want to go this route, rack the gun again, put a bullet in it, and do it, if it’s that bad. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Dakota Meyer will probably always have somewhere to turn, not least to the families whose children’s bodies he brought back.

Guys you lost, brothers and sisters that fell over there next to you, and you made it home. Meyer may not have caught BAE doing anything illicit, but he does seem to have had a close-up glimpse of how our policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan work at cross-purposes, and to have decided, definitively, which axis he didn’t want to be on.

The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. DM: I think the only thing I can really say on this is that we settled our differences amicably. We are simply taking the best gear, the best technology on the market to date and giving to guys that are known to stab us in the back…. We need you to be on a landline an hour prior, and we’ll call every fifteen minutes to make sure the line is open.

What is it like to be called a hero publicly, and be distrusted privately and in the workplace? Further controversy came with news that Army Captain William Swenson, also nominated for a Medal of Honor for his actions in Ganjgal, was involved in a public dispute with Meyer. Here’s what I’ll say. To revisit this article, select My⁠ ⁠Account, then View saved stories. He rode into the field on the exposed back of a gun truck, under heavy fire, and saved thirty-six soldiers, more than two dozen of them Afghans. (The Wall Street Journal reported the suit.) We got rid of him. DM: No. DM: Yeah, I am. Do you think there should have been a draft? He did well. His cufflinks were made from human molars. If that’s the foreign policy part of the story, then the domestic side is just as troubling.

I just wish him the best. He may have been very blunt with his supervisor; perhaps that seemed uncoöperative. Suddenly thrust into the national spotlight by virtue of his award—one conspicuously rare in twelve years of war was initially and universally celebrated as a hero.

What drove you to that point, and what changed, afterward? BVR: You were the first living recipient—. The company’s answer involves the varying uses of import licenses, the approbation of the State Department, and absence of any completed sale. I don’t know if a lot of them know how to use it or if they know the capabilities that they could use it on. He currently resides in Columbia, Maryland, USA. But as of right now, whatever I can do to make the biggest difference is what I want to do.