Most People Haven’t Even Heard Of The Most Decorated Military Officer In U.S. History

Those 29 medals, by the way, include a Medal of Honor, a Silver Star (with one oak-leaf cluster), and a Legion of Merit. So Urban is without a doubt up there with the most decorated servicemen in U.S. history. It’s strange, then, that he is not as familiar as that other much-medaled soldier: Audie Murphy.

It probably doesn’t help that Murphy became a movie star after WWII. The veteran even headlined a popular Hollywood film — 1955’s To Hell and Back — all about his staggering exploits during the war. But Urban flew completely under the radar until he earned his Medal of Honor in 1980… an almost unforgivable 35 years after his WWII service.

Up until that point, it seemed only the soldiers who’d served with Urban knew about his incredible military achievements. Yet Staff Sergeant Earl G. Evans had actually recommended Urban for a Medal of Honor back in 1945. The problem? His letter reportedly didn’t make its way to Urban’s commanding officer. But all was not lost.

In 1978 Urban himself shed light on his extensive military career. The veteran asked the Army Military Awards Branch for details about the Medal of Honor. And when the organization took a look at Urban’s file, researchers found a copy of Sgt. Evans’ letter. This led to a deeper dive into Urban’s WWII actions — and the discovery of an unsung U.S. hero.

After all, we don’t give Medals of Honor to just anybody. To earn this prestigious award, you have to have extensive proof of your heroics. That includes official documents and eyewitness testimonies. But Urban didn’t have any evidence. And considering that the war had ended 33 years before, it would be very difficult to get it. But that didn’t stop him from trying.

The Army Awards Branch started an investigation – and its staff were soon convinced that Urban was more than deserving of a Medal of Honor. The team interviewed men who’d seen Urban in action, and the accounts all agreed that Urban was the real deal. But there was something else about his record that was very strange.

Urban’s file showed that the man had already received a bunch of medals. These included two Silver Stars – the third-highest military combat medal – for his tours in Africa and a Bronze Star for that bazooka attack we mentioned earlier. Yet the veteran had received nothing for his other brave actions in Europe in 1944.

It seemed clear to all involved that this situation needed to be rectified – and quickly. Urban was nothing short of a valorous leader who’d been dedicated to the wellbeing of his men. And when you see the details that the researchers assembled into his Medal of Honor citation, we’re sure you’ll agree.

Urban joined the war in France in June 1944. He was a captain at the time and already a veteran of the fight in North Africa. He’d earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart, too. But he seemingly wasn’t about to let any old injury stop him from fighting the country’s enemies in Europe.

The bazooka counterattack happened on June 14 near Renouf, France. And even though that incredible act of bravery would have been enough action for most men, Urban was far from finished. On the very same day, the captain advanced his men toward Orglandes – and got fired upon by a 37mm tank gun. But still he wouldn’t quit.

This is despite Urban getting injured in that tank-gun attack. Yes, instead of retreating, Urban stayed in command of his unit and got them into a position of relative safety for the night. And early in the morning of the next day, the captain ordered his men to go on the offensive. This time, though, Urban wouldn’t be able to carry on.

Remember, Urban had already been injured by a tank gun in the previous attack. So when he was wounded yet again the next day, the soldier had to finally give in. Yet it’s perhaps only because one of those injuries was “serious” that Urban allowed himself to be shipped back to England to recover. His war was far from over, though.

The captain recuperated in England for all of a month before he returned to the European theater of WWII. This probably went against the advice of his doctors. Because even though he had been out of action for a few weeks, Urban had not yet properly recovered from his wounds. But that apparently didn’t matter to him once he’d received bad news about his unit.

The 9th Infantry Division had been decimated while fighting in the hedgerows across Normandy. And it dawned on Urban that his fellow soldiers were now lacking any leaders who had real experience of WWII warfare. So what did he do? He took it upon himself to leave the hospital.

Seemingly operating without official Army orders, Urban made his own way to France. He did this by hitchhiking all the way from England to Saint-Lô in Normandy. And all the while he was limping from his unhealed leg. But when Urban got to the 2nd Battalion’s field HQ on July 25, he found out that he was just too late.

Urban had missed his unit by only half an hour. He learned that the 9th Infantry had left at 11:00 a.m. to play their part in Operation Cobra. This Allied military campaign aimed to break out of Normandy and take the fight to the enemy. And Urban wasn’t about to miss out on this vital action.

So he literally limped forward until he reconnected with the men of the 9th Infantry. And it seems as though it was a good thing he did. Because when Urban finally discovered his unit, it was not in good shape. In fact, they’d come up against an opposing force that was keeping them on their heels. Urban had to do something – fast. 

The captain assessed the situation. His unit had been supported by three tanks, two of which had already been taken out by the enemy. The third was still operational, but it had neither gunner nor driver. Urban quickly found the officer responsible for the tanks and made a plan of action.

Still, the enemy troops were not to be defeated easily. When a lieutenant and a sergeant first tried to board the unit’s only working tank, they were swiftly mown down by the German forces. This wasn’t going to stop Urban from winning the day, though. He decided to lead by example.

Still suffering from his wounded leg, Urban darted as fast as he could toward the unmanned tank. He got on board, too, and he demanded that the tank go forward. Then he took an action that proved to be a turning point in the battle – and proved why he so richly deserved his Medal of Honor.

The tank was strafed by hostile fire, but Urban plowed ahead regardless. He even took charge of the machine gun and blasted away. He was directly in harm’s way, his life there for the taking, but he still managed to subdue the enemy. Unsurprisingly, his heroics also inspired his men to keep pushing forward.

The rejuvenated battalion charged with their own counterattack. Pumped up by the incredible actions of Urban, the unit turned things around and routed the enemy. This is even more impressive when you remember that Urban was injured and only just back from the hospital. But the captain wouldn’t stay invincible forever. 

A week later, shell fragments struck Captain Urban in the chest. The injury must have been pretty bad because the battalion surgeon wanted to evacuate Urban for further recovery. But the captain took no notice. Instead, he carried on leading his men – and got injured again. This would be something of a theme for Urban’s war.

Four days after getting those wounds, 24-year-old Urban took official command of the 2nd Battalion. He was in charge for nine days before he was injured again. But, true to form, Urban still refused to be taken away from his men. His fellow soldiers would no doubt be grateful for this when they encountered particularly staunch enemy resistance on September 3.

This time the fighting started on the river Meuse in Belgium. The Axis powers feared that the Allies were advancing too much and chose this point to try to put an end to their offensive. So Urban’s 2nd Battalion was given an important mission, one that would be Urban’s final action in a theater of war.

The job handed to the 2nd Battalion was to set up a place for the Allies to cross the Meuse. But given the importance of this crossing, it was never going to be easy. The enemy opened fire on them with everything they had. And for a while, that brought the 2nd Battalion’s efforts to a halt. But then Urban had an idea.

Urban left his command post. He jumped up to the head of the battalion, in fact, and started changing up his plan. The captain then got all of his offensive force in order and led the way to the enemy’s position. It was a bold move… But one that fortunately paid off for the Allied troops.

It didn’t go strictly to plan, though. As Urban rushed forward in attack, he was hit and injured in the neck. Needless to say, this was a serious wound. The captain was moved out of the attack  – but he still insisted on staying with his men, even though he couldn’t say anything louder than a whisper.

But whatever Urban did manage to say, it seemingly proved to be inspirational for his men. The captain stayed with them until they had defeated the opposing forces and set up the all-important crossing. But by that time, Urban was in urgent need of medical attention and finally had to be evacuated.

By all accounts, field surgeons had little hope of getting Urban out of there alive. But as we know, the captain survived — albeit with an enduringly croaky voice — and went on to receive the highest honor for valor in the U.S. military. Yet his armed forces career didn’t stop with that bothersome neck injury.

In October 1944 Urban became a major. He then worked his way up to battalion commander of the 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. He earned yet another promotion – this time to lieutenant colonel – in October 1945 before getting medically retired four months later. So it’s almost inconceivable that the Medal of Honor eluded him for 35 years.

In the end, he received that medal from the incumbent president in July 1980. The commander-in-chief lauded Urban as “truly a hero of this great nation.” He also said Urban consistently showed “an outstanding example of the bold, courageous, inspired, and heroic action which this medal was established to honor.” But the leader of the free world had an apology for Urban, too.

“I deeply regret the delay of this ceremony for so many years,” the president said during the ceremony. But the commander-in-chief was more than happy to be finally awarding Urban with the medal for which he had been kept waiting so long. Yet he wasn’t the only one handing Urban medals that July.

One day before receiving the Medal of Honor, Urban also earned four other prestigious medals. The U.S. Army gave him the second oak-leaf cluster for his Bronze Star, his sixth oak-leaf cluster for his Purple Heart, and the Legion of Merit. Then another country offered Urban a medal, too.

France gave Urban the Croix de Guerre with a silver-gilt star. This medal is awarded for acts of bravery committed in either of the World Wars. The silver-gilt aspect just indicates that Urban came from the army. And after a couple of days of receiving medals, Urban was clearly moved by the whole experience.

The San Bernardino Sun newspaper reported that Urban was on the verge of tears during his Medal of Honor ceremony. “It was just so emotional,” Urban said. “I had a wet eye there for a while.” It probably didn’t help him retain his sangfroid that he was surrounded by 900 men from the 9th Infantry at the time.

Of course, Urban didn’t waste the 35 years after the end of World War II. He made his home in Michigan and spent many years working at the Monroe Community Center. And you won’t be surprised to learn that he put his leadership skills to good use, too.

He was still working when he received his Medal of Honor as well. In fact, he didn’t retire until 1989 – when he was the Holland civic and recreation department’s director. He likely spent the next six years of his life in Holland as well. He was still there when he died on March 4, 1995.

Urban finally died of a collapsed lung. It was reported that this may have been caused by one of his many old war wounds. But at least he got the recognition he deserved during his lifetime. He also got to enjoy his final years as one of the most-decorated military officers in U.S. history, though he was far from the only lesser-known war hero to be honored above all others for his bravery.

Born in 1916, Edward Allen Carter Jr.’s mother was from India and his father was an African-American missionary. When he was 15, Carter had his first taste of military action in China, where his parents were living. In fact, he joined the Chinese Army in its fight against the invading Japanese. But his age was revealed and the young soldier was forced to leave the service. Clearly determined to gain battle experience, however, he went to Spain in 1936 and joined the Republican forces fighting the civil war there.

Carter joined the U.S. Army in September 1941 just before America engaged in WWII. But he didn’t see combat until 1944 in France. The following year, when fighting with the 56th Armored Infantry Battalion, the tank he was riding on was hit. Of the three men he was with, two died and one was badly wounded. Carter himself was shot five times but still managed to kill six of the eight Germans who attacked him. And then he took the remaining two prisoner. Despite that brave act, at the time, the veteran only won a Distinguished Service Cross. But this injustice against the African-American soldier was finally corrected in 1997, when he was posthumously awarded a Medal of Honor.

Born in Oklahoma in 1975, Joshua Lloyd Wheeler was a Cherokee Nation citizen. Aged 19, the young man signed up with the U.S. Army infantry in 1995. He undertook basic training at Georgia’s Fort Benning, and later joined the 75th Ranger Regiment. He served on three tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan with the Rangers.

Wheeler was assigned as a special operations soldier and joined Delta Force in 2004. He was a team leader with that unit and served on 11 frontline missions in the Middle East. In 2015, Wheeler was in Iraq, fighting ISIS forces. In October of that year he took part in an operation at an ISIS prison, an operation that succeeded in releasing some 70 hostages. His bravery in fighting the terrorists during that assault unfortunately resulted in his death. The veteran won a clutch of decorations during his career and that final act of courage earned him a Purple Heart, a Silver Star and the Medal of Patriotism.

James Helms Kasler was born in 1926 in Indiana and started his military career by joining the U.S. Army Reserve in 1943. He first saw active service with the Air Force in 1944 and also served in the Korean War. Kasler flew F-86 Sabre fighter jets during that conflict and shot down six enemy planes. He also served in Vietnam from 1966 and flew F-105 fighters there.

The airman was on his 91st Vietnam combat mission in August 1966 when his wingman’s plane was destroyed. The stricken pilot ejected and Kasler flew his plane incredibly low to give the man cover. While doing so, his plane was hit and he, too, ejected, only to be captured by the North Vietnamese. He was cruelly tortured in a bid to force him to participate in enemy propaganda, but he refused. This stalwart resistance won him a third Air Force Cross. He was finally freed in 1973 after 2,401 days as a prisoner. At the end of his career, Kasler’s total of 76 awards included two Silver Stars and nine Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Vernon Joseph Baker came into the world in 1919 in Wyoming. His first attempt to join the U.S. Army came in April 1941, but he was rebuffed because of his color. However, a second attempt in June was successful. He then undertook basic training as an infantryman at Camp Wolters, Texas. From there, he went on to Officer Candidate School, emerging as a second lieutenant. And in 1944, Baker landed in Italy with the 370th Infantry. However, he quickly sustained an arm wound resulting in a two-month hospital stay.

Baker was back on the frontline in spring 1945 as a platoon commander when his unit attacked a well-defended German mountain position. The lieutenant knocked out three machine gun nests in an intense engagement that resulted in the deaths all but six of his platoon’s 25 men. Undeterred, he then led a second assault the next day which captured the mountain. As a result, the serviceman received the Distinguished Service Cross. In later years, though, the authorities recognized that many African-Americans had been unjustly treated during the conflict due to racism. Baker was one of those whose bravery award was upgraded to a Medal of Honor in 1997.

Joel Thompson Boone was born in Pennsylvania in 1889. He graduated from Philadelphia’s Hahnemann Medical College in 1913 and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve with the rank of junior grade lieutenant the next year. He went on to study at the Washington, D.C. Naval Medical School and, from there, joined the Navy full-time. In 1916 he deployed to Haiti with the Marine Expeditionary Force, there to suppress rebel fighters.

The U.S. entered the First World War in November 1917 and Boone was now assigned as a medical officer aboard U.S.S. Wyoming. He was then attached as a surgeon to the 6th Marine Regiment, fighting in France. It was during this service that he displayed extraordinary courage while treating wounded men while under enemy fire. His exploits earned him the Medal of Honor, adding to his tally of six Silver Stars and a Distinguished Service Cross. The serviceman’s many medals made him the most decorated U.S. Army medical officer of all time.

Not long after Eugene Ashley Jr’s birth in North Carolina in 1931, his family moved to New York City. From there, he eventually joined the U.S. Army in 1950 and saw service in the conflict in Korea. But it was during the Vietnam War that his exceptional heroism came to the fore. He served there with the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

On February 6, 1968, Ashley led his unit on an assault on a North Vietnamese position during the Battle of Lang Vei. A detachment of American troops was trapped there by a communist force of troops and tanks. With complete disregard for his own safety, the commander led repeated attacks on the enemy despite having been shot multiple times. The fifth attack finally led to a North Vietnamese retreat, but he was mortally wounded by an enemy artillery round. The serviceman was later posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Merritt Austin “Red Mike” Edson came into the world in Vermont in 1897. He became a second lieutenant with the Marine Corps in 1917 and was posted to France in 1918, although his unit saw no action there. In the years after the First World War, Edson served in both China and Central America. But it was during WWII that he saw the highlights of his career.

During the summer of 1941, Edson took command of a U.S. Marine battalion. The following year he led his men in an amphibious landing on Tulagi, one of the British Solomon Islands in the Pacific. There was fierce opposition from the occupying Japanese, but the Americans prevailed. However, the veteran is best remembered for his exploits during the fighting on Guadalcanal. His men had taken a ridge there and were ferociously and repeatedly assaulted by a 3,000-strong enemy force. The Marines, though, held out and the commander won a Medal of Honor for his exceptional courage in leadership.

Neel Ernest Kearby came into the world in 1911 in Texas. He graduated from the state’s university before joining the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1937 where he learned to fly. After service in the U.S., Kearby was posted to Australia in 1943 during the Second World War. He was in command of the 348th Fighter Group which flew the formidable P-47 Thunderbolt fighters. The airman downed his first Japanese aircraft, a Mitsubishi G4M bomber, in September that year.

In an October 1943 combat mission, Kearby, along with four other P-47s, ran into a force of 40 Japanese fighters. The airman shot six of them down, and this feat won him a Medal of Honor, making him the first fighter pilot to win that award. He then went on to reach a tally of 22 kills, the highest achieved by a pilot in the Pacific. On a mission in March 1944, however, the colonel shot down yet another aircraft, but was himself hit by an enemy plane. Although he parachuted clear, the bullet wounds he’d sustained resulted in his death.

Louis Cukela was born in 1888 in the European city of Split, which is in modern-day Croatia. He started a new life in America in 1913 and, in 1914, signed up with the U.S. Army. Rather unusually, he served for just under two years before being honorably discharged in 1916. Then, in 1917, he enlisted again, this time with the U.S. Marine Corps. With America now fighting in the First World War, Cukela was posted to France in 1918 and saw action in various battles.

Cukela’s bravery earned him a commission as an officer and many awards including a Navy Medal of Honor. He won this in July 1918 by taking a German machine gun position from the rear at bayonet point and capturing four of the enemy. In fact, he won two Medals of Honor for this engagement, as the Army awarded him one separately.

He remains one of only 19 Marines to have won the Medal of Honor twice.

When Sammy Lee Davis joined the army in 1965 – just a year and a half after leaving high school – the U.S. was already embroiled in the Vietnam War. And following a period of extensive training, the young soldier was, in March 1967, posted to the southeast Asian country with the rank of private first class. It didn’t take long for the artilleryman to make his mark, either. In the early hours of November 18, 1967, Davis was with his 43-strong unit at a position called Firebase Cudgel in the Mekong Delta. Then some 1,500 Viet Cong fighters ambushed the Americans, attacking them with mortars and bullets.

In the ensuing melee, Davis grabbed a machine gun and lay down suppressing fire to enable his comrades to launch artillery rounds at the enemy. Then, despite injuries that rendered him incapable of swimming, the intrepid private commandeered a floating mattress and saved three G.I.s trapped on the other side of a nearby river. Unsurprisingly, the soldier’s outstanding courage ultimately earned him the U.S.’ highest award for bravery: the Medal of Honor.

William Henry Johnson – who was born in 1892 in North Carolina – enlisted in the U.S. Army just weeks after America had entered the First World War. The African-American soldier was then sent to France for labor rather than combat duties – often the case with non-white servicemen at the time. Eventually, though, Johnson got his chance to fight when his segregated regiment was put under French command.

On one May night in 1918, Johnson was on guard patrol in the Argonne Forest when a band of German soldiers approached. And the brave sergeant chose to fend off the attackers with grenades, his large knife and even his fists — at the cost of 21 wounds to himself. Owing to that extraordinary act of courage, then, the French went on to honor Johnson with the Croix de Guerre. But the Americans were slow to follow that lead, and the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross that he ultimately received came more than half a century after his death.

After entering the world in 1938 in Piedmont, South Carolina, Joe Ronnie Hooper joined the U.S. Navy at just 18. And following a period as an airman that saw him honorably discharged in 1959, Hooper proved his penchant for military life by subsequently signing up to the army. This was despite the fact that he had rather an appetite for trouble — something that landed him in disciplinary hot water on more than one occasion.

Nevertheless, during Hooper’s two tours of Vietnam, he excelled enough to earn a hatful of medals — including eight Purple Hearts, a pair of Silver Stars and half a dozen Bronze Stars. But his most prestigious award was undoubtedly the Medal of Honor, which he received for his considerable bravery in combat in 1968. On February 21 that year, Hooper had led an attack on a well-defended position close to Hue. And while the then-sergeant and his men subsequently came under heavy fire, Hooper ignored the danger and personally evacuated several wounded men — even though this action would lead to him becoming gravely injured. Regardless of the personal damage he suffered, he continued to fight, killed several North Vietnamese soldiers and led his charges to victory.

Fighter pilot Robin Olds first saw action at the age of 21 when he flew WWII missions from England in 1944. Proving his considerable skill in combat even then, the then-captain downed 12 German planes in total – thus earning the title of double ace. Yet while Olds stayed in the Air Force after WWII had ended, he was refused permission to fight in the subsequent Korean War – a matter that became a source of deep personal frustration. When the U.S. stepped up its part in the conflict in Vietnam,he was put back in action, holding command of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing in 1966.

Yet while Olds received a variety of decorations for his time in service, none were more prestigious than the Air Force Cross he earned in 1967. On August 11 that year, the colonel managed his unit of eight fighter planes on a mission to strike a bridge that was strategically important to the North Vietnamese. And although he and his men would come under considerable fire while pursuing their goal, they ultimately succeeded in hitting the target.

Superior, Wisconsin, native Richard Ira Bong first took to the skies while he was still at college as part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program. And Bong put that experience to good use in 1941 when he joined the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program – ultimately gaining his wings in January 1942. Then, trained up as a pilot of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the second lieutenant was posted to the South West Pacific – set for combat during WWII.

Bong proved his worth for the Allies, too, when in 1942 he shot down his first two Japanese planes — an accomplishment that won him a Silver Star. Seeing off another four Japanese craft also earned him a Distinguished Service Cross. And as of December 1944, Bong had brought down an astonishing 40 enemy planes — the highest number destroyed by any American pilot during WWII. That same month, moreover, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Tragically, though, the pilot — by then a major — died in August 1945 when the plane he was flying as a test pilot crashed.

Among Jorge A. Otero Barreto’s many accomplishments, he held the distinction of being the inaugural Puerto Rican graduate of the 101st Airborne Division’s training program — which he completed in 1960. Then, the following year, the young soldier began the first of the five tours of duty that he would complete in Vietnam, commencing his service as an advisor to South Vietnamese military units.

All in all, Otero Barreto took part in 200 combat missions, during which he was wounded on five occasions. And owing to his outstanding conduct in the field, the sergeant first class was decorated handsomely, with five Purple Hearts, five Bronze Stars and two Silver Stars among his 38 awards. Otero Barreto won the second of those Silver Stars for leading a desperate and highly dangerous — yet ultimately successful — attack on a well-defended North Vietnamese position.

Born in 1913, Washington, D.C., native Eugene Bennett Fluckey graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1935. Three years after that, he entered Basic Enlisted Submarine School in Connecticut. But even after a spell serving on two Navy subs, Fluckey wasn’t done learning. In 1943, then, he took further training – this time at the Prospective Commanding Officer’s School in New London. And at the height of WWII in January 1944, the experienced submariner was deemed fit to take command of the USS Barb.

Fluckey proved his mettle, too, as, in his 18 months as Barb’s commander, his vessel claimed no fewer than 17 confirmed sinkings — including the downing of both a cruiser and an aircraft carrier. And the sailor’s endeavors not only won him four Navy Crosses and a Medal of Honor, but also the virtually inevitable nickname of “Lucky Fluckey.” That moniker, though, somewhat ignores the fact that the skipper’s decorations came by way of bravery rather than mere good fortune.

Irish-American Thomas Buchanan McGuire Jr. entered the world in Ridgewood, New Jersey, in 1920. While still at college, however, he dropped out to attend the U.S. Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program. McGuire ultimately won his pilot’s wings in February 1942, and just four months later he was flying on combat missions around the Aleutian Islands in the Northern Pacific.

Then, in 1943, McGuire entered the South West Pacific theatre of WWII, marking the start of a period that would see him excel in the air. During just two days in August that year, for instance, he downed five Japanese planes — among the 38 he felled in total during his time in conflict. And the feat that would earn McGuire both a Silver Star and a Purple Heart came in October 1943, when he was wounded after shooting down three Japanese Zero fighters. Yet while the major managed to bail out on that occasion, his luck sadly ran out in January 1945 when his plane crashed during a dogfight. McGuire was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1946.

Hungarian Matej Kocak was born in 1882 in a town that now lies in modern Slovakia. In 1906, however, he left his native land for America, joining the U.S. Marine Corps the following year in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And while Kocak’s first active service overseas was in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1914, it was during the First World War that his exceptional bravery came to the fore. After the U.S. had entered the conflict in 1917, Kocak was posted to France in December of that year.

And on July 18, 1918, the sergeant held his nerve during an attack on German troops in the Argonne Forest. During the intense skirmish, Kocak made a single-handed bayonet charge on a machine gun position, putting to flight the Germans manning it. He didn’t stop there, either, instead going on to take command of more than two dozen French colonial troops and overwhelm another machine gun nest. But while these two actions ultimately earned Kocak Medals of Honor from both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army, he sadly wasn’t around to receive those accolades in person. The intrepid Marine was killed in action on October 4, 1918 — little more than a month before the war ended.

Daniel Joseph “Dan” Daly began life in Glen Cove, New York, in 1873, and joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1899. A year later, he was posted to China and fought in the Boxer Rebellion – a conflict that saw Chinese patriots rise up against foreigners in their country. In one action, Daly held a key defensive position, and despite repeated attacks, he clung on, inflicting some 200 casualties on his opponents. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery.

Daly was then awarded a second Medal of Honor in 1915. The sergeant was fighting rebels in Haiti at the Battle of Fort Dipitie when his unit was ambushed by a much larger force of Haitian rebels. But despite the unit being heavily outnumbered, he led his men to safety. Then in WWI, Daly participated in the fierce Battle of Belleau Wood in France in 1918 and won a Navy Cross. He is one of only two soldiers ever to have earned two Medals of Honor through separate actions.

Smedley Darlington Butler was born way back in 1881 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Keen to sign up to the military, he later lied about his age so that he could join the forces – in his case, the U.S. Marines – in 1898. Sent to the Philippines in 1899, Butler had his first taste of armed combat there, leading 300 men as they took a town called Noveleta.

Butler was then sent to China in 1900 to suppress the Boxer Rebellion, and his heroics when wounded there resulted in a Marine Corps Brevet Medal. Then, in 1914, he won a Medal of Honor for his bravery during street fighting in Veracruz, Mexico. And a second such award came as a result of combat in Haiti in 1915 at the Battle of Fort Dipitie. Along with Dan Daly, who also received his second medal at Dipitie, Butler is the only Marine to have been awarded two Medals of Honor following separate actions.