Marine Cpl. Jonathan Eckert of Oak Lawn, Illinois, attached to India Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment while on patrol near FOB Zeebrugge, October 2010.

November 10, 2011, 6:46pm / 125

US Marines from the 2nd MEB, 1st Battalion 5th Marines (1/5) in Afghanistan

November 04, 2011, 12:01pm / 45

Marines caught in a sand storm during patrols somewhere in the Farah Province, Afghanistan, May 2009

November 03, 2011, 6:28pm / 68

US Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan

A Marine who braved enemy fire alone to retrieve the bodies of his fallen comrades will be awarded the Medal of Honor, Marine Corps Times reports.

Dakota Meyer, who now lives in Austin, Texas, will be the first living Marine to receive the nation’s highest military honor since the Vietnam War. Two living Army soldiers, Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry and Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, have received the medal in the past year.

Meyer will be recognized for his actions on September 8, 2009, in Ganjgal, a remote Afghan village near the border with Pakistan. As his unit of 13 U.S. service members came under attack by a force of 50 heavily-armed insurgents, Meyer, a corporal at the time, repeatedly ran through enemy fire to recover the bodies of fellow American troops.

“Whatever award comes out of it, it’s for those guys (who were killed) not for me,” Meyer said in an interview with Military Times.

“I feel the furthest thing from a hero,” he said. “The way I view it is I let those guys down.”

July 21, 2011, 9:14am / 39

Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines “Warlords” rest during an operation to hunt for insurgents.

June 13, 2011, 11:00am / 31