Dakota Meyer Earned Medal of Honor at Just 21. Years Later, Thinking of His 2 Daughters, He Rejoined the Marines

Last spring, Dakota Meyer made a decision that surprised even some of the people closest to him.

Nearly 15 years after receiving the Medal of Honor, Meyer reenlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps — this time as a reservist — at age 36. He says it was a choice he talked through with his two daughters, Sailor, 9, and Atlee, 8, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Bristol Palin.

Meyer, now 37, says his girls push him to keep growing — and to live in a way he’d be proud for them to witness.

“My hope is that they grow up, and they know what a good man looks like,” he says.

He keeps himself grounded with a simple daily question: What would his daughters think if they were watching?

Meyer first became widely known when he was awarded the Medal of Honor by then-President Barack Obama for his actions during combat in the Middle East. He served in the Marine Corps from 2006 to 2010, including two deployments.

During the Battle of Ganjgal in September 2009, Meyer, then 21, acted with what a senior military officer described as “conspicuous gallantry at the risk of his life … above and beyond the call of duty,” as he came under fire, fought insurgents, and worked to reach and recover Americans and Afghan partners who were pinned down or killed.

Even so, Meyer says he’s careful about how he views the honor.

“That medal that I have, it doesn’t represent a badass. It doesn’t represent a hero,” he says. “All it represents is what the potential is in every human being if they believe in a cause that’s bigger than themselves.”

A Personal Reset After Divorce

Meyer met Bristol in 2014, during a period when her family was still regularly making headlines following Sarah Palin’s 2008 run as the GOP vice presidential nominee.

Their relationship had its ups and downs — some of it even playing out on reality television. They married in June 2016, after welcoming their first child, Sailor. Their second daughter, Atlee, was born in May 2017.

Less than a year after Atlee’s birth, Meyer filed for divorce.

Looking back, he says the split forced him to confront his own patterns.

“I really had to take a hard look in the mirror of — why do you keep getting it wrong?” says Meyer, whose third book, Why to What, was published last year. “I couldn’t go through life blaming others and blaming the world for my problems.”

That same year, Meyer moved to Austin, Texas. He and Bristol share custody, and his daughters spend every other week with him.

He says the two co-parent peacefully.

“The girls are so fortunate that they get to grow up in two households,” he says, “with two parents that love them more than anything.”

Healing, Fatherhood, and Moving Forward

Meyer says it took time to fully face what he carried from his years in uniform — and to decide the kind of father he wanted to be.

“I went through life for a long time, and I hurt a lot of people,” he says. “I said things I didn’t mean. And that’s the thing I realized is hurt people, hurt people.”

He has spoken publicly about living with post-traumatic stress disorder and experiencing suicidal ideation. For years, anxiety was a constant.

“I used to wake up every day with anxiety,” he recalls. “I don’t know that my daughters ever really saw me sleep until after 2019.”

Meyer credits time spent at a veterans treatment facility in Mexico affiliated with the nonprofit VETS for helping him begin to heal.

Since settling in Austin, he’s taken on a range of roles: volunteering part-time with a local fire department, working as an ambassador for Hiring Our Heroes to help veterans find employment, and launching a Substack called “The BLUF.”

Why He Went Back

Meyer says he trained for two years before officially joining the Marine Corps Reserve in April.

“I’m in the best shape of my entire life,” he says — often with his daughters alongside him at the gym.

They also attended his reenlistment ceremony last year, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom Meyer describes as a longtime friend. Before returning to the Marines, Meyer had publicly criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He calls reenlisting a decision that affects the whole family. The path he’s pursuing requires a year of schooling to become a reconnaissance Marine, and he says he expects to see his daughters at least once a month during training.

To make it work, his father is flying in from Kentucky to stay with the girls during the weeks they’re scheduled to be with Meyer.

Ultimately, Meyer says the motivation is both personal and patriotic — and rooted in the example he wants to set at home.

“I knew that with my daughters, that just talking about service and sacrifice and about the greater good wasn’t going to be enough,” he says. “I would have to go back in, and I would have to live it, and I’d have to show it to my daughters.”

Life at Home: E-Bikes, Kangaroos, and Clear Rules

While he stays connected when he’s away, Meyer says he’s strict about technology. There’s one shared phone at home the girls can use to text him — but it’s not for games or social media.

When they’re together, he says they keep things active: racing around on e-bikes, hiking, and visiting the eight kangaroos on their property.

He describes Sailor as a focused “goal setter” who loves flag football and basketball. Atlee, he jokes, is his “mini me.”

“She’ll walk in, and as much as you think you’re testing her, she’s really testing you,” he says, laughing.

More than anything, Meyer says he wants his daughters to grow into capable, kind, self-reliant people.

“I want them to look in the mirror and know they’ll be enough for themselves,” he says.

“I want them to be strong.”