Four Times Told No: Dakota Meyer and the Ambush at Ganjgal

8 September 2009. Before dawn, a convoy of about thirteen Americans and roughly eighty Afghan soldiers and border police rolls into the Ganjgal valley in Kunar Province for a meeting with village elders. A little after five-thirty in the morning, the valley opens up on them from three sides. The men on the ground ask for artillery and air cover. Help is slow to come. This is the story of the battle that followed, told through the men who were there: Corporal Dakota Meyer, Staff Sergeant Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, Captain William Swenson, Captain Ademola Fabayo, and the four Americans trapped in a drainage ditch at the edge of the village: First Lieutenant Michael Johnson, Gunnery Sergeant Edwin Johnson, Staff Sergeant Aaron Kenefick and Corpsman James Layton. It is also the story of the questions the Army and Marine Corps asked afterward, and of the parts of the record that are still argued over. CHAPTERS 0:00 Opening 0:47 Dakota Meyer 4:38 The Valley Opened Up. 6:51 Eighty Minutes. 7:31 “I Guess We'Ll Die With Them.” 8:45 Trip One. 9:31 8 · 12 · 36 11:53 1St Lt. Michael Johnson · Gysgt Edwin Johnson 12:36 Nearly Nine Hours 13:16 Five Americans Killed 15:35 “…Above And Beyond The Call Of Duty.” 17:44 What Ganjgal Taught Us 18:32 He Asked Four Times. A NOTE ON THE FOOTAGE 3D map sequences are reconstructions on real terrain (elevation data) and satellite imagery; routes and positions are approximate. Archival photographs and films are public domain or openly licensed (U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, Department of Defense and National Archives via Wikimedia Commons). Some archival material illustrates the period rather than the exact moment described; captions give the source and date. Where historical accounts differ on exact numbers, the narration notes the discrepancy. SOURCES Medal of Honor citation · Cpl. Dakota L. Meyer, USMC Medal of Honor citation · Capt. William D. Swenson, U.S. Army Defense Media Network · Cpl. Dakota Meyer and the Battle of Ganjgal U.S. Army (army.mil) · Swenson Medal of Honor ceremony, 15 Oct 2013 Wikipedia: Battle of Ganjgal Wikipedia: William D. Swenson McClatchy · Afghan accounts of Ganjgal (2012) Dakota Meyer & Bing West · Into the Fire (2012) Terrain: AWS Terrain Tiles. Satellite imagery: Sentinel-2 cloudless by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data), CC BY 4.0. Maps: (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. Narration: AI voice. Music: original score. #AfghanistanWar #MedalOfHonor #MilitaryHistory