Sgt. Dakota Meyer, a Medal of Honor recipient for heroism in Afghanistan, reenlisted into the Marine Corps Reserve after a 15-year break.
Meyer, a loud critic of the Biden administration's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, reenlisted during a ceremony at the Pentagon on Thursday.
"I just love this country, and I love the people of America with every moral fiber of my being," he said after taking the oath of reenlistment.
"There hasn't been a single day since I got out 15 years ago that I didn't wake up and truly want to serve again and truly want to wear and put on this uniform again."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Meyer's primary motivation in returning to the Marines was not to assist in recruitment.
"He's not just signing up to sign up and be on a recruiting poster," Hegseth said. "He's signing up to do the real thing. Which again, just is again another testament to who he is and what he represents."
Meyer said he does not want to be protected from potentially dangerous assignments.
"[I said] that, if I was going to come back in... I didn't want any special treatment. I asked that I would be able to have the same opportunities as any other sergeant, and that's what we agreed on," he said.
After saying "the mission never left me," Meyer credited his two daughters with teaching him "more about leadership than any battlefield ever did... they have taught me more of how to be a better Marine than I think any battlefield ever could."
Before the ceremony, the 36-year-old Meyer indicated to reporters that he would refrain from politics while in uniform.
"The great part about being in the reserves is I'm still a citizen when I'm not on orders," he told reporters, Military.com reported. "When I'm on orders I'll comply obviously with whatever the standard is."
Meyer received the Medal of Honor from then-President Barack Obama for his gallant actions during a 2009 battle in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, where he charged five times in a Humvee into heavy gunfire to rescue comrades under attack by Taliban insurgents.
His actions during the six-hour attack and firefight saved the lives of 36 people, both Americans and Afghans. He killed at least eight Taliban insurgents, Military.com reported.
In 2014, Medal of Honor recipient Capt. William Swenson returned to active duty.
Swenson received the Medal of Honor at the White House in 2013 for his actions during a deadly firefight in Afghanistan in 2009. The captain reportedly left the Army in 2011 but asked to return to active duty.