Former Marine to Receive Living Medal of Honor for Recovering Bodies of Fallen Soldiers During Firefight

A Marine who braved enemy gunfire alone to retrieve the bodies of four fallen members of his team will be awarded the Medal of Honor, according to the Marine Corps Times.

Former Marine Corps Cpl. Dakota Meyer will be the third living recipient to receive the nation's highest honor for actions in Afghanistan, and the first living Marine to receive it since the Vietnam War.

The Marine Corps Times reported:

Meyer, who left active-duty service in June 2010 as a corporal, will be honored for his actions Sept. 8, 2009. He charged into a kill zone on foot and alone to find three missing Marines and a Navy corpsman, who had been pinned down under intense enemy fire in Ganjgal, a remote village near the Pakistan border in violent Kunar province.

Already wounded by shrapnel, Meyer found them dead and stripped of their gear and weapons, and helped carry them from the kill zone, according to military documents obtained by Marine Corps Times.

According to Stars and Stripes, details about when the award will be presented have not been released.

Former Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta and Army Staff Sgt. Leroy Petry are the only other living Medal of Honor recipients for the war in Afghanistan. Giunta received his last fall and Petry was awarded the honor earlier this month.