[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 143 (Friday, September 23, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONGRATULATING SGT. DAKOTA MEYER ON HIS RECEIPT OF THE CONGRESSIONAL 
                             MEDAL OF HONOR

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HAROLD ROGERS

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 23, 2011

  Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in order to honor 
Sergeant Dakota Meyer of the United States Marine Corps and the 
recipient of the highest military honor our Nation can bestow, the 
Congressional Medal of Honor.
  Born in Columbia, Sgt. Meyer's upbringing in rural southern Kentucky 
was quintessentially American. In high school, he distinguished 
himself--as an all-star on the football field and as a tutor 
volunteering his time to special-needs students in the classroom. Sgt. 
Meyer aspired to be a college football player until a chance encounter 
with a USMC recruiter awakened in his heart the challenge to serve his 
country. His eighteenth birthday found him at boot camp on Parris 
Island.
  Sgt. Meyer served nobly in Iraq and at the conclusion of his tour 
there volunteered for another deployment, this time to Afghanistan. He 
has described the events of September 8, 2009, in the Kunar Province of 
northeastern Afghanistan as the ``worst'' day of his life. With that in 
mind, and the details of his heroism contained in the Medal Citation, I 
will not recount the terrible events of that day. Because of his 
actions, thirteen Marines and Army soldiers, as well as twenty-three 
Afghan soldiers made it out of an ambush to live and serve another day. 
And the bodies of four fallen American servicemen and a mortally 
wounded Army soldier--Marines 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, Gunnery Sgt. 
Edwin Johnson and Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick; Navy Corpsman 3rd Class 
James Layton; and Army Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth W. Westbrook--made it 
home to their loved ones and a grateful country.
  As he received the Congressional Medal of Honor at a White House 
ceremony on September 16, with his usual modesty Sgt. Meyer dedicated 
the award to those brave men: ``The main thing that we need to get from 
that day is that those guys died heroes, and they are greatly missed.'' 
Having recently marked the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that 
drew us into war, as Sgt. Meyer reminds us, our Nation must commit to 
memory the service men and women who have sacrificed their utmost since 
in order to ensure the security and sovereignty of our blessed 
Republic.
  It is impossible to convey how proud I am to join the American people 
as we honor Sgt. Dakota Meyer. Like him, I believe that in 
commemorating the events of that day in the far-off mountains of 
Afghanistan, we may honor those we lost while finding the strength and 
courage to ensure that the American dream of freedom and liberty will 
never dim.

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