NEWPORT BEACH, Ca. – Congressional Medal of Honor winner Dakota Meyer will receive an honorary Lott IMPACT Trophy at the annual Lott IMPACT Trophy awards banquet Dec. 11 at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach, Ca.
The former Marine sergeant was recently awarded the nation’s highest award for valor.
On September 8, 2009, Meyer was one of 13 American military trainers embedded with a unit of 80 Afghan soldiers headed for a routine meeting with local elders in the village of Ganjgal , located in a valley along the border with Pakistan .
Four trainers at the front of the U.S.-Afghan force were immediately trapped by the heavy enemy fire believed to be coming from as many as 150 Taliban fighters.
Positioned at the rear when the ambush began, Meyer and other members of his unit disobeyed orders to remain in place and used a Humvee to rush into the kill zone to try and rescue the four trapped at the head of their column.
Manning the Humvee’s turret gun, Meyer killed at least eight insurgents and rescued 36 Afghan and American troops in his first four attempts to reach the four trapped trainers. He and his team members finally broke through to their position on the fifth attempt and moved on foot through a hail of gunfire only to find they had been killed in the fighting. Meyer then retrieved their remains.
When he presented the award to Meyer in September, President Obama said: “You did your duty above and beyond, and you kept the faith with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps you love. You represent the best of a generation that has served with distinction through a decade of war.”
In an interview with ABC’s Bob Woodruff on ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer,” Meyer said that if he was faced with the same situation again, “I would do it a hundred times” though he would change only one thing: “I wish I could have kept them alive.”
He insists he is not a hero, but was only doing “what Marines do…I’m the furthest thing from a hero,” he says, “if this is what it feels like to be a hero you can have it.” He adds, “What gives me the right to be standing here today and not their kids? I feel like I failed them and I failed their families.”
Meyer wears bracelets with the names of the four Americans killed in Ganjgal that day and feels some guilt that he survived the battle. “I guess what’s stuck in my mind is you either get guys out alive or you die trying, if you didn’t die trying, you didn’t try hard enough.”
Now 23, Meyer was born and raised in Kentucky , where he currently resides.
This is the fifth honorary Lott Trophy awarded: Pat Tillman (posthumously, 2004); Mark Herzlich (2009); Owen Marecic (2010) and Tyrone Fahie (2010).
A National Voter Panel will select the winner of the annual Lott IMPACT Trophy, which goes to college football’s best defensive player who has the biggest IMPACT on his team both on and off the field.
The winner’s school will receive $25,000 for its general scholarship fund while the three other finalists will receive $5,000 for their schools. The IMPACT Foundation has already donated more than $850,000 to local and national charities.
Hall of Fame broadcaster Brent Musburger will be the keynote speaker.
Named after Pro Football Hall of Fame member, Ronnie Lott, The Lott IMPACT Trophy is awarded to college football’s Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year. Founded in 2004 by The Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation, The Lott Trophy is the first and only college football award to equally recognize athletic performance and the personal character attributes of the player. The Lott Trophy is given to the player who exhibits the same characteristics Lott embodied during his distinguished career: Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity. Voters for the award include selected members of the national media, previous finalists, the Board of Directors of the Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation and a distinguished group of former college football head coaches. To date, the Foundation has donated more than $850,000 to various charities throughout the country. The eighth annual Lott Trophy dinner will be held Dec. 11th at The Pacific Club in Newport Beach, California. For more information on The Lott Trophy visit: www.LottTrophy.com . Follow college football by going to the Lott Blog at www.LottTrophy.com