Recently, I devoted Profiles of Valor to two Medal of Honor recipients: Sgt Dakota Meyer (USMC), who returned to duty at age 36 after being discharged in 2010, and Army SGM Thomas Payne, who remained on active duty after receiving his MoH.
Another recent recipient who remained on active duty is Command Sergeant Major Matthew Williams.
Matt is a native of Boerne, Texas. His life aspiration when young was to be an FBI agent, and he wanted to pursue a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
But like many young folks coming of age at the time of the 9/11 Islamist attack on our nation, he rethought his aspirations.
Motivated to serve our country and interested in Special Operations, in 2005, Matt joined the Army. After completing Infantry One Station Unit Training and Basic Airborne Training, he completed the Special Forces assessment and selection process and in 2007 graduated from the SF Qualification Course as a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant (18B) — a specialist in both our weapons and those used by foreign adversaries. It is a specialty that takes those with his skills behind enemy lines to train friendly forces. He was assigned to Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne).
On 6 April 2008, then-SGT Williams was serving with Operational Detachment Alpha 3336, Special Operations Task Force 11, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan. He was on a mission to capture or kill high-value targets in the Hezeb Islami al Gulbadin group located in the Shok Valley. His assault element consisted of American soldiers and a larger contingent of almost 100 Afghan commando forces.
They were infilled into the region by helicopter and were traversing a mountainside when they were ambushed by a much larger enemy force with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The assault element point men, including the group commander, suffered several casualties, and they were pinned down by enemy fire. Matt and the rest of the element were also forced to take cover under intense fire from the enemy insurgents, who had the high ground.
Matt described the initial attack: “It was kind of quiet, then all of a sudden everything exploded all at once — machine gun fire, some RPGs started going off. [The enemy] had some pretty good shooters and a lot of people up there waiting for us.”
Hearing the lead element had serious casualties, Matt coordinated with his Afghan commandos, and they daringly crossed a 100-meter open ravine and then forded a waist-deep fast-moving river in order to get up the mountainside. They were able to get to a position where they could provide suppressive fire and prevent further lead element casualties. Working their way toward his pinned-down men, the Afghans continued suppressive fire while the Americans determined the least lethal route to evacuate the casualties.
Matt recounts, “I went about halfway down, called a couple more of our guys and asked them to bring more commandos up so we could basically make a chain to pass these casualties down because they were going to be on litters.”
As they were setting up, one of his soldiers was hit by sniper fire. Matt got to his position under fire, rendered first aid, then got him to his feet in order to get him to a lower position on the mountain. He then fought his way back up the mountainside in order to get the rest of the injured down.
“I knew we couldn’t go up the same way we’d gone other times because it had been getting pretty heavy fire,” Matt says. “There was a cliff face that went around to a little outcropping. I saw that if we could scale that, we could get onto this outcropping, and we’d be able to come up from behind where those other guys were.” That was an almost vertical 20-meter wall.
They made it back to the top, where he killed several enemy insurgents and got his team’s communications restored. Then, under fire, the effort to get the wounded down the mountain began. Over the next two hours, Matt and Afghan commandos initiated multiple counterattacks against an estimated 200 insurgents until the last of the wounded were boarded onto medivac helicopters and exfilled. The rescue operation, from start to finish, was more than six hours.
Several months after the incident, Matt and nine other men with him were awarded Silver Stars for their heroic actions.
After his 2008 deployment, Matt returned stateside and soon thereafter met his future wife, Kate. In 2012, he completed his undergraduate degree from Angelo State University and, in the seven years that followed, completed five additional deployments.
In 2019, Matt’s Silver Star was reviewed and fittingly upgraded to a Medal of Honor.
According to his MoH citation, “Sergeant Williams’ complete disregard for his own safety and his concern for the safety of his teammates ensured the survival of four critically wounded soldiers and prevented the lead element of the assault force from being overrun by the enemy.”
I have noted before that Medals of Honor represent the worst day in the lives of those who receive them. Accordingly, Matt recalls: “That day was one of the worst predicaments of my life. But the experience from that has helped me through my whole entire career — remain level-headed and focus on what needs to happen as opposed to what is happening.” He added, “I think it’s an honor for me to receive this on behalf of the Special Forces regiment, hopefully representing them in a positive manner and helping get the story out about what it is that we’re actually doing and what Green Berets are capable of.”
At his ceremony, President Donald Trump said: “The enemy that really held a high ground, superior numbers, and an element of surprise — they had it all going; everything they’re not supposed to have, they had. But they had one major disadvantage: They were facing the toughest, strongest, and best-trained soldiers anywhere in the world.”
Matt became the second member of his detachment to receive a Medal of Honor for their actions in the Shok Valley exfill, the first being SGT Ron Shurer. In 2020, I profiled Ron in “What ‘Hero’ Really Means, distinguishing his heroic actions from those domestic hospital workers who were being falsely canonized as "heroes” in the opening months of the ChiCom Virus pandemic.
Having met both Matt and Ron, let me say these men are so humble that if you did not know about their extraordinarily selfless heroic actions, you would never guess they were Medal of Honor recipients. Sadly, we lost Ron after his battle with cancer in 2020.
Matt and his wife Kate have a son, Nolan, and they live in North Carolina, where he remains on active duty with a SOF unit. You can watch him narrate his actions here.
CSM Matthew Williams: Your example of valor — a humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty and in disregard for the peril to your own life — is eternal.
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of American Liberty, honoring their oath “to support and defend” our Constitution. Pray for our Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please consider a designated gift to support the National Medal of Honor Sustaining Fund through Patriot Foundation Trust, or make a check payable to “NMoH Sustaining Fund” and mail it to:
Patriot Foundation Trust
PO Box 407
Chattanooga, TN 37401-0407