Medal of Honor Monday: Command Sergeant Major Matthew O. Williams – A Green Beret’s Relentless Courage

From Texas Roots to the Tip of the Spear

Matthew O. Williams grew up in the wide-open expanse of Texas Hill Country, where the air is dry, the sunsets are biblical, and hard work is a birthright. He was the kind of kid who didn’t need to be told twice—athletic, steady, and quietly confident. After earning a degree from Angelo State University, Williams found himself restless, drawn to something that would test every limit he had. When most of his peers were slipping into cubicles, he took a harder road. In 2005, Williams enlisted in the U.S. Army, not to fill a quota or follow a family line, but to find purpose.

He didn’t settle for ordinary soldiering. The Green Beret path—US Army Special Forces—was the crucible he sought. Grueling selection, endless rucks, mind-bending endurance tests; it was where the line between quit and conquer is razor-thin. Williams didn’t quit. He earned the right to wear the long-tab and joined the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), the same outfit that would later send him deep into Afghanistan’s most unforgiving terrain.

Sergeant Major Matthew O. Williams displayed extraordinary bravery and selflessness on April 6, 2008, while serving as a Weapons Sergeant with Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 3336 in Afghanistan.

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Under intense enemy fire, he led a counterattack across an icy valley,… pic.twitter.com/4NWa9BWBgj

— GarySiniseFoundation (@GarySiniseFound) February 3, 2025

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Into the Heart of the Hindu Kush

By 2008, Afghanistan was boiling. The war had shifted into a deadly chess game against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters who knew the mountains better than anyone. Williams, then a weapons sergeant with ODA 3336, was deployed to Nuristan Province—one of those jagged, lawless corners where every ridge line hides a gun barrel.

On April 6, 2008, a combined assault force of U.S. Special Forces and Afghan commandos set out by helicopter to capture a high-value Taliban target. As the team moved up the steep mountain, everything went sideways. The enemy had the high ground, and they used it. Gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades poured down like rain. The ambush was total chaos—men pinned, radios screaming, blood in the dust.

Williams’ team was trapped. The lead element took devastating fire, and casualties mounted fast. Without waiting for orders, Williams moved toward the sound of the guns. He climbed through open terrain under a barrage of fire to reach wounded soldiers, dragging them back to cover while returning fire the whole way. Bullets snapped around him, but he didn’t flinch.

He rallied Afghan commandos, directed suppressive fire, and carried wounded comrades through 100 meters of enemy kill zone—not once, but multiple times. When the medevac bird tried to land under fire, Williams helped secure the landing zone, shielding the wounded with his own body. Then, instead of resting, he went back into the fight. Hours later, after what felt like a lifetime of combat, his actions had saved four lives and prevented the total annihilation of his team.