WASHINGTON (AP) — Dakota Meyer, a Marine who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in the Afghanistan War but later became a sharp critic of the Biden administration over its chaotic withdrawal from that conflict, has reenlisted in the military and will serve in the Marine Reserves.
In a briefing with reporters Thursday before the ceremony, Meyer said he is returning to military service after 15 years out of uniform because he felt he “had more to give.” He's also close to President Donald Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who administered the oath to Meyer at the Pentagon and hugged him afterward.
But Meyer said he would refrain from politics while in uniform.
“The great part about being in the reserves is I'm still a citizen when I'm not on orders,” he said. “When I'm on orders I'll comply obviously with whatever the standard is."
Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest honor, by then-President Barack Obama in 2011 for his heroics in Afghanistan when he charged five times in a Humvee into heavy gunfire to rescue comrades under attack by Taliban insurgents.
On Sept. 8, 2009, Meyer was part of a security team supporting a patrol moving into a village in the Ganjgal Valley. Suddenly, the lights in a nearby village went out and gunfire erupted. About 50 Taliban insurgents on mountainsides and in the village had ambushed the patrol.
His actions during the six-hour attack and firefight saved the lives of 36 people, both Americans and Afghans. He killed at least eight Taliban insurgents. Firing from a gun turret on top of a Humvee driven by a fellow Marine, he provided cover for his team, allowing many to escape likely death.
Four American soldiers died in the ambush: 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, 25, from Virginia Beach, Virginia; Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, 30, of Roswell, Georgia; Corpsman James Layton, 22, of Riverbank, California; and Edwin Wayne Johnson Jr., a 31-year-old gunnery sergeant from Columbus, Georgia. A fifth man, Army Sgt. Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, of Shiprock, New Mexico, died later from his wounds.
After leaving the military, Meyer remained in the spotlight. In 2016 he married former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, and they had two children.
He’s been outspoken about the jailing of another Marine — Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller — who criticized the Biden administration for the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan in social media posts while in uniform, which is a violation of military conduct.
FILE - Grand Marshal Dakota Meyer, U.S. Marine Corps, a Medal of Honor recipient, waves from a car during the annual Veterans Day Parade, Nov. 11, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)
FILE - Dakota Meyer, a Marine veteran of the war in Afghanistan and a Medal of Honor recipient, speaks to soldiers and spouses at a jobs fair in Fort Campbell, Ky., April 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
FILE - President Barack Obama awards the Medal of Honor to Marine Corps Cpl. Dakota Meyer, 23, from Greensburg, Ky, in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sept., 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's prime minister Wednesday visited a battered southern village as a Lebanese-Israeli agreement brokered by Washington appears to have started following a monthslong war.
Nawaf Salam's appearance in Zawtar Al Gharbieh comes a day after President Joseph Aoun's landmark White House meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, who promised to back the Lebanese government in its bid to claim state control across the country.
Lebanon and Israel in late June signed the agreement, which calls for the Lebanese military to deploy in areas in southern Lebanon where Hezbollah had a military presence and influence, and from where Israeli troops that have occupied dozens of villages would withdraw.
Both sides later agreed on a pilot zone made up of a series of villages to test the implementation of the agreement. While Israeli troops have struck and conducted ground operations in those towns and villages, none of them are under their occupation, but the Lebanese army has also not been there in large numbers.
The latest war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group started March 2, after the group fired rockets towards Israel in solidarity with war-torn Iran, its main backer. In response, Israel launched an aerial campaign and ground invasion in Lebanon, killing more than 4,000 people and displacing 1.2 million others.
Lebanon's top political leadership criticized Hezbollah for dragging the country into another war, but also condemned Israel for its widespread bombing and ground invasion.
Salam, alongside Lebanon’s defense minister and senior military officials, pitched a Lebanese flag near a destroyed building in the town, vowing the government will start rebuilding destroyed homes and infrastructure.
“We have insisted since the beginning that our goal is the complete Israeli withdrawal from all our territory,” Salam said. “What we are seeing today is just the beginning, but we remain determined and steadfast, and will continue to mobilize all political and diplomatic efforts to secure a full withdrawal from all of Lebanese territory.”
Hezbollah has condemned the government for holding direct talks with Israel and rejected the agreement, but the militant group has not tried to sabotage it through military means. Its leadership believes Israel cannot be pressured to withdraw its troops by diplomatic means only, and that Lebanon lacks the leverage of its key ally Iran in negotiations.
Trump, in his meeting with Aoun, did not speak much about the pilot zone going into its implementation phase, but pledged to support Lebanon without going into details.
Aoun and the Lebanese government have urged the international community to invest in the tiny country and its army to help rebuild its infrastructure and military capacity.
President Donald Trump greets Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun on his arrival at the White House, Tuesday, July 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
In this photo released by the Lebanese Government press office, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, center, raises a Lebanese flag during a visit to the southern village of Zawtar Al Gharbieh, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (Lebanese Government press office via AP)
