U.S. President Barack Obama is set to award the Medal of Honor to a former Marine Corps corporal for conspicuous gallantry and exhibiting fearlessness at the risk of his life while in combat.

Dakota Meyer will receive the award at a White House ceremony Thursday.

Meyer was serving in Afghanistan with an embedded Marine training team on September 8, 2009, when the group came under heavy Taliban fire while traveling to a village in the Ganjgal Valley.

Meyer, who was in the back of the convoy at the time of the attack, made five trips in his armored Humvee into enemy fire to save 13 Marines and Army soldiers and 23 Afghan troops. He also returned to the danger zone to help retrieve the bodies of four U.S. troops.

Meyer will be the third living soldier and the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for actions in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta and Army Sergeant First Class Leroy Petry are the other living recipients of the award.

The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest military decoration.