Braveheart marine to be pinned with Medal of Honour

He will be bestowed the honour by President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony today, and is the only living American soldier to receive the award for war in Afghanistan.

The former marine risked his life five times in Afghanistan's most turbulent province Kunar to save 36 fellow soldiers, including 13 marines and 23 Afghan soldiers, while providing covering fire to troops to extricate themselves out of a withering six-hour firefight with the Taliban in an operation in 2009.

Meyer, CNN reported, killed at least eight militants, in a close hand-to-hand combat despite being wounded himself.

The fateful day for the 23-year-old Meyer began as any other day as he took out Afghan soldiers for a training near his post in Ganjgal Valley in Kunar province, bordering Pakistan.
As the joint patrol moved into a village, the lights went out and 50 heavily-armed Taliban militants ambushed the group from their hidden positions perched atop mountainside.

It became a six-hour orgy of violence and heavy gunfire, as Meyer and his other marine crew members provided cover to the trapped troops. They called in the air support which never materialised.

Meyer and his naval colleagues jumped into a Humvee to make five death defying trips to the combat zone to rescue their colleagues in groups.