Medal of Honor recipient sues defense contractor

SAN ANTONIO - A U.S. Marine given the nation's highest award for valor is suing a defense contractor that he says ridiculed his Medal of Honor, called him mentally unstable and suggested he had a drinking problem, thereby costing him a job.

Dakota Meyer became just the third living recipient of the Medal of Honor in September, two years after the young corporal saved 36 lives during a six-hour ambush in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama praised Meyer, 23, for his humility and work ethic and treated him to a beer in the Rose Garden.

But Meyer says in a defamation lawsuit filed in Texas that his former employer, BAE Systems OASYS Inc., ruined his chances at landing a new job by telling a prospective employer that he was a poor worker during a three-month stint earlier this year.

A BAE Systems manager said Meyer "was mentally unstable, that Sgt. Meyer was not performing BAE tasks assigned and that Sgt. Meyer had a problem related to drinking in a social setting," according to the lawsuit.

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The lawsuit, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, seeks unspecified damages.

BAE Systems spokesman Brian Roehrkasse told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the company was grateful to Meyer for his bravery but strongly disagreed with his claims. He called Meyer's actions in Afghanistan "heroic" and wished him success.

Attorneys for Meyer did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday.

Meyer was working construction in his home state of Kentucky when he was awarded the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House.

According to the lawsuit filed Monday, BAE hired Meyer in March but the relationship quickly soured. Meyer said he became dismayed in April upon learning that BAE had pursued sales of weapons systems to Pakistan, and sent an email to his supervisor expressing his disapproval.

Meyer wrote that it was "disturbing" how U.S. troops were being issued outdated equipment when better, advanced thermal optic scopes were being offered to Pakistan.

"We are simply taking the best gear, the best technology on the market to date and giving to guys who that are known to stab us in the back," Meyer wrote in the email, according to the lawsuit.

Roehrkasse, the BAE spokesman, said it is the State Department and not BAE that makes the decision on which defense-related products can be exported.

"In recent years, the U.S. Government has approved the export of defense-related goods from numerous defense companies to Pakistan as part of the United States' bilateral relationship with that country," Roehrkasse said.

Meyer claims his supervisor began berating and belittling him after sending the email, at one point allegedly taunting him about his Medal of Honor by calling it Meyer's "pending star status." That supervisor, Bobby McCreight, is also named in the lawsuit and is still employed by BAE. Roehrkasse said McCreight is a former decorated Marine sniper.

Meyer resigned from BAE in May. He then tried obtaining a job at a former employer, San Diego-based Ausgar Technologies, but the lawsuit claims the opportunity fell through after McCreight characterized Meyer as a poor employee during a conversation with a manager who had to approve new hires.

"Bottom line, it was determined that ... you were not recommended to be placed back on the team due to being mentally unstable and no (sic) performing on OASYS tasks assigned," according to an email from an AUSGAR manger included in the lawsuit.

Valerie Ellis, an administrator at Ausgar, said the company had no comment when reached Tuesday.

Meyer was previously cited for his efforts to rescue four comrades who were pinned down during a battle with the Taliban in a village in Afghanistan. Defying orders by his superiors to stay where he was, Meyer rode through heavy fire in a gun-armed truck to rescue the trapped soldiers and the wounded.

"The rounds were hitting the turret and I just kept moving left and right, left and right," Meyer told CBS News correspondent David Martin in a 60 Minutes interview back in September. "There was so much fire it sounded like static over your head. I was just waiting for one of their rounds to hit me in the face." When Meyer did reach the soldiers, they were dead.

For his act, Meyer saved 13 American and 23 Afghan troops. According to the military, he killed eight enemy fighters despite being wounded himself.