Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer of Kentucky received the military’s highest honor from President Obama on Thursday, in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

On Sept. 8th, 2009, then-Cpl. Meyer rushed into heavy fire in eastern Afghanistan in search of three missing Marines and  a Navy corpsman. While en route, he and driver Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez rescued 23 Afghan alliance fighters and 13 American soldiers, returning to the “killing zone” five separate times. They recovered the bodies of the Marines and corpsman.

According to Obama, Meyer suffered shrapnel wounds to his arm.

Sgt. Rodriguez-Chavez received the Navy Cross, the military’s second highest honor, in June.

Meyer is only the third person to earn the award for service in the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. He did not speak to reporters, but did tweet his gratitude: “A sincere thank you to everyone who has reached out today. Semper Fi.”

When Obama called to inform Meyer of the honor, Meyer reportedly asked the president to call back, explaining he had to get to a new job in construction. Meyer later asked if they could instead have a beer together, and the president obliged.

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