While at Green County High School he had walked up to a recruiting United States Marine Corps sergeant visiting from about an hour's drive away.

He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at a recruiting station in Louisville, Kentucky and went to boot camp at Parris Island.

Under enemy fire, Meyer entered an area known to be inhabited by insurgents and eventually found the four missing servicemen dead and stripped of their weapons, body armor, and radios.

[10] Meyer "killed at least eight Taliban, personally evacuated 12 friendly wounded, and provided cover for another 24 Marines and soldiers to escape likely death at the hands of a numerically superior and determined foe.

[18] A year after the Battle of Ganjgal, after drinking at a friend's house, Meyer attempted suicide using a Glock pistol kept in his truck's glove compartment.

[20] Meyer filed a lawsuit against his former employer, defense contractor BAE Systems, alleging the company and his supervisor punished him for his opposition to a weapons sale to Pakistan.

[21] The lawsuit claimed that BAE Systems ridiculed Meyer's Medal of Honor, called him mentally unstable and suggested he had a drinking problem, thereby costing him a job.

The article explained that accounts leading to Medal of Honor awards are frequently inaccurate, and that in Meyer's case "crucial parts that the Marine Corps publicized were untrue, unsubstantiated or exaggerated".

[25] In the book, Meyer makes a case for Army Captain William D. Swenson to be awarded the Medal of Honor;[19] Swenson had criticized Army officers at the nearby Forward Operating Base Joyce for not providing fire support, leading to accusations that the paperwork for his Medal of Honor recommendation had been "lost" as punishment.

[27] In 2013, Meyer participated in the fourth season of Maximum Warrior,[28] a TV competition among U.S.-military operators, featuring ten military-inspired challenges.

As of 2015, Meyer sits on the advisory board for VETPAW,[29] an organization of U.S. military veterans dedicated to protecting African wildlife.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Marine Embedded Training Team 2-8, Regional Corps Advisory Command 3-7, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on 8 September 2009.

Moving into the village, the patrol was ambushed by more than 50 enemy fighters firing rocket propelled grenades, mortars, and machine guns from houses and fortified positions on the slopes above.

With a fellow Marine driving, Corporal Meyer took the exposed gunner's position in a gun-truck as they drove down the steeply terraced terrain in a daring attempt to disrupt the enemy attack and locate the trapped U.S. team.

Still under heavy enemy fire, he dismounted the vehicle on the fifth trip and moved on foot to locate and recover the bodies of his team members.

His unwavering courage and steadfast devotion to his U.S. and Afghan comrades in the face of almost certain death reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.