Another Pat Tillman?

It appears that we might have another Pat Tillman-like case on our hands. Tillman, you may remember, was an outstanding defensive player for the Arizona Cardinals, who gave up his career and enlisted in the Army after 9/11. He was killed in the line of duty. Only later, after questions from his family, did it come out that he was actually killed by friendly fire and that the Pentagon had covered this fact up because it needed a PR hero in the face of unpopular wars.

Now it appears that the Marine Corps embellished the heroic acts of Cpl. Dakota Meyer, who was awarded the Medal of Honor. I take nothing away from what Cpl. Meyer did on the battlefield. He showed what it means to be a hero.

No, my fault rests solely on the Marine Corps brass who decided they had to make this proud Marine larger than life.

Obama told the audience in the White House East Room on Sept. 15 that Meyer had driven into the heart of a savage ambush in eastern Afghanistan against orders. He’d killed insurgents at near-point-blank range, twice leapt from his gun turret to rescue two dozen Afghan soldiers and saved the lives of 13 U.S. service members as he fought to recover the bodies of four comrades, the president said.

But there’s a problem with this account: Crucial parts that the Marine Corps publicized and Obama described are untrue, unsubstantiated or exaggerated, according to dozens of military documents McClatchy Newspapers examined.

Sworn statements by Meyer and others who participated in the battle indicate that he didn’t save the lives of 13 U.S. service members, leave his vehicle to scoop up 24 Afghans on his first two rescue runs or lead the final push to retrieve the four dead Americans. Moreover, it’s unclear from the documents whether Meyer disobeyed orders when he entered the Ganjgal Valley on Sept. 8, 2009.

It appears that they only reason the Marine Corps pushed for this honor was because they felt slighted.

The process for awarding the medal — designed by Navy rules to leave “no margin of doubt or possibility of error” — involves reviews by commanders at every level of the nominee’s chain of command and then by top Pentagon officials. The nominating papers — known as a “medal packet” — typically comprise dozens of sworn witness statements, maps, diagrams, a draft citation and a more detailed account of the nominee’s deeds.

As the Afghan and Iraq wars wind down, senior Marine Corps officials conceded the pressure to award more medals, and to do it quickly. One senior Marine official told McClatchy that the service felt that it deserved the decoration after having served in the toughest, most violent areas of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Awarding this Nation’s highest military honor should not be done because you feel that your service hasn’t gotten its fair share. Senior leaders of the Marine Corps have tarnished the Medal of Honor and the heroic actions of this young Marine. Heads need to roll and senior officers responsible need to be fired.