By Jesse Serwer
"It was an interesting week, that's for sure," recalled Meyers, a 30-year-old Rockville Centre native and Chaminade grad who lives in Jacksonville, North Carolina with his wife, Heather, and his new son, Nicholas. "The award was something I wasn't looking forward to getting. I would have rather have not gotten shot. Just the fact that my entire company came back alive is enough for me."
A captain with the Marines' Alpha Tank Company, Meyers had been stationed in Iraq for two months when the company was sent into Fallujah in November, where they encountered a week's worth of constant firefighting.
"We began conducting clearing operations and the enemy changed tactics ‹ as Marines and Iraqi forces swept from house to house, [insurgents] were building bunkers inside houses and would wait for Marines to enter, and then fire on us," he said. "We would clear all the friendly [troops] out of the area and fire into the house. The day that I got shot was a similar operation. An infantry platoon was attempting to clear out a house which they had surrounded but due to the close proximity of friendly troops couldn't fire on it."
Once a plan of attack was devised Meyers ran into an alleyway to communicate with troops who didn't have a radio but was shot once in the arm while he took cover behind a bulldozer. It wasn't until four hours later that the firefight subsided and Meyers was able to seek medical help.
"As a commander it is hard to leave your Marines when they are still fighting. You can't just walk away. My left arm was out of commission for two weeks but I could still do my mission. A doctor gave me the requisite shots to counter the metal, but I still have the bullets in me in fragments."
With Meyers now back at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where his younger brother, Michael, is currently training, his parents in Rockville Centre are looking forward to spending some time with their oldest son and their new grandson.
"We were worried when he was wounded but thank God everything was okay," said his mother, Janice Meyers, a Sherwood Road resident. "Rockville Centre gave us a lot of support during his deployment and we are very thankful for that."
Comments about this story? JSerwer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
