The Amazing Story of How Sgt. Dakota Meyer Rescued 36 Soldiers Under Heavy Fire.

 The Amazing Story of How Sgt. Dakota Meyer Rescued 36 Soldiers Under Heavy Fire.

If you play by the rulebook, it’s definitely not ok. However, Corporal Dakota Meyer proves that you can’t always play the rules and sometimes disobeying orders from a superior officer can save 30+ lives.

In 2009, Corporal Dakota Meyer and Staff Sergeant Juan Rodriguez-Chavez are a mile away from friendly Afghan and American forces going up to a village to meet with elders.

Then, they hear the American force getting ambushed from three sides on the radio. Four times they request to go in and four times they get denied saying that it was too dangerous.

In the valley, American soldiers were getting pinned down, wounded, and killed.

But one of the teachers in his high school once said, "When you tell Dakota he can't do something, he's is going to do it.

And as Dakota said of his trapped teammates, "Those were my brothers, and I couldn't just sit back and watch."

Dakota couldn’t take it anymore and told Juan that they were going to go in. They jumped into the Humvee and went straight for the valley without thinking twice.

Juan jumped into a Humvee and took the wheel; Dakota climbed into the turret and manned the gun. They were defying orders, but they were doing what they thought was right. 

So they drove straight into a killing zone, Dakota's upper body and head exposed to a blizzard of fire from AK-47s and machine guns, from mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

The first time they arrive at the fire fight, they see wounded friendly Afghan soldiers and load them onto the Humvee. 

Now mind you, each time he gets out of the Humvee to retrieve the wounded Afghan soldiers, his body is exposed to all the bullets flying around. After loading them up, they turn around and get them to safety. Then, they go back.

The second time they encounter more friendly Afghan forces. Juan swerving the Humvee around to get around explosives and Dakota shooting all over the place. They load more soldiers up and turn around to get them to safety.

They go the third time and this time insurgents thought it’d be funny to run up to the Humvee.

 Dakota fights them off and Juan places the vehicle right at the line of fire to use it as a shield as Dakota loads American soldiers into the Humvee. They turn around once again to put the soldiers in a safe location.

Now at this point of time, anyone that was sane would’ve stopped. Not Dakota.

The fourth time, Juan and Dakota goes back and he’s now wounded at his shoulders. He retrieves more soldiers and turns around to safety.

Now, he goes back a fifth time. This time, there’s bullets flying from every window, door, and alley way.

 Not looking back, he runs towards the trapped Americans , drawing all the bullets to himself and gets to the four Americans. 

He takes them in his arms one by one and together they make it back to the Humvee.

Because, as Dakota says, "That's what you do for a brother.

In all, he saved 36 soldiers and in 2011, President Obama awarded him with the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions.

In war, I believe it’s up to your judgment whether you follow direct orders or not. In war, there isn’t a play book.

It’s you and your battle buddies. You do what you have to do in order to save them, even though it means you could die.