Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Dakota Meyer returned to service in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves on Thursday, 15 years after leaving active duty.
With his right hand raised, 36-year-old Meyer swore the Oath of Enlistment before Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes, according to the U.S. Marine Corps website.
“There hasn’t been a single day since I got out 15 years ago that I didn’t wake up and truly want to serve again,” Meyer said at the ceremony. “I didn’t want to do it because of the rank. I didn’t want to do it for recognition. I just did it because the mission never left me.”
During a Friday segment of “America’s Newsroom” on Fox News, Meyer encouraged those thinking about enlisting into the Marine Corps to do so.
“There’s never been a better time to serve our country than right now,” Meyer said.
“There’s never been a need, like we need right now, of good men and women who are willing to stand up and who are willing defend the beliefs of the American people, of the Constitution, and to protect all of those things against whatever enemy that is willing to try to step up and to try to threaten that,” he said.
Nearly sixteen years ago, Medal Of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer almost lost his life while fighting in Afghanistan.
Dakota has decided to answer the call of duty once again and has reenlisted in the @USMC pic.twitter.com/CcCPeXcxne
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) April 18, 2025
In 2009, Sgt. Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration in the United States, according to a 2024 news release from the Department of Defense.
Meyer was just 21 years old when he and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez rescued dozens of trapped men during a firefight in Afghanistan.
Rodriguez-Chavez drove the Humvee and Meyer manned the turret as the two traversed the combat zone for hours, rescuing as many as they could, even recovering the bodies of four U.S. servicemen.
“They were defying orders, but they were doing what they thought was right,” now-former President Barack Obama said at Meyer’s Medal of Honor ceremony in 2011.
Rodriguez-Chavez received the Navy Cross for his valor.
Hegseth praised Meyer for his decision to return to service.
“I want the American people, I want your fellow Marines, I want other service members to look at the example and say … you are never too experienced, you’ve never done too much that you can’t continue to contribute,” Hegseth said.
“He’s not just signing up to sign up and be on a recruiting poster. He’s signing up to do the real thing, which again, is yet another testament to who he is and what he represents.”
Meyer, serving as an infantryman, will return with the same rank of sergeant, which he held when he left active duty, according to the New York Post.
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