ÔWe salute your unyielding service': Fort Bragg soldier receives Medal of Honor

Fort Bragg soldier Master Sgt. Matthew Williams receives the Medal of Honor from President Donald Trump for his role in helping fellow soldiers during a 2008 attack in Afghanistan.

A Fort Bragg soldier with the 3rd Special Forces Group received the nation’s highest honor for valor in combat from President Donald Trump on Wednesday night for saving fellow soldiers during a six-hour enemy firefight.

Master Sgt. Matthew Williams received the Medal of Honor for his actions on April 6, 2008, while deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
“Matt, we salute your unyielding service, your unbreakable resolve, and your untiring devotion to our great nation and the nation that we all love,” Trump said. “Your spirit keeps our flag waving high, our families safe at home and our hearts beating with American pride.”

Officials said Williams was a weapons sergeant at the time with Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 3336, Special Operations Task Force-33.

Williams and nine other soldiers with the unit received the Silver Star medal Dec. 12, 2008.

Another soldier from the same unit, Staff Sgt. Ronald Shurer II, received the Medal of Honor from Trump last year for his actions in the same attack.

Shurer and eight other Medal of Honor recipients were in attendance at Wednesday night’s ceremony.

On Wednesday night, Trump said Williams wanted Americans to know he was not alone in his actions.

Trump recognized other soldiers part of Williams’s team, and their Afghan interpreters.

“It’s incredible. Your valor, your bravery, your strength, your heart and and your soul,” Trump said. “It’s incredible what you’ve done. The battle of Shok Valley is a testament to the overwhelming strength, lethal skill and unstoppable might of the United States Army Special Forces and all of our military.”

Raised in Boerne, Texas, Williams originally wanted to enter the law enforcement field but joined the military after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Trump said.

After completing his special forces training in August 2007, Williams deployed to Afghanistan by October 2007, Trump said.

On April 6, 2008, he joined dozens of American Special Forces soldiers and Afghan commandos on a mission to take down a terrorist leader in a remote mountain village, Trump said.

Williams was joined by Shurer, retired Master Sgt. Scott Ford and Lt. Col. Kyle Walton during an interview Tuesday at the Pentagon.

Shurer was the medic during the April 2008 mission, Ford was the team sergeant and Walton was the detachment commander.

Walton said crews woke up about 2 that morning to find there was snow, a 10,000-foot elevation and fast-moving river in the area they were headed to in Afghanistan’s Shok Valley.

Helicopters were unable to land, causing crews to jump about 10 to 12 feet either toward the river and jagged rocks, Walton said.

Williams was in the rear assault element with Ford and Shurer, he said.

“Within just a few minutes enemy forces had pinned down our initial assault element and the command and control element of which I was part of, Walton said. “We had multiple casualties.”

An interpreter was killed immediately, he said.

Williams and his Afghan commando partners remained in the riverbed as other soldiers moved up the mountain.

Williams joined a small counter-assault team led by Ford to assist the wounded higher up on the mountain.

That’s when he noticed his teammates, Staff Sgt. Dillon Berh and Staff. Sgt. Luis Morales, were shot.

Williams said he went about halfway down to ask a couple of soldiers from his unit to bring more commandos so a “chain” could be made to pass the casualties on litters.

As the team prepared to move the casualties, Ford and another soldier from the unit, Staff Sgt. John Walding, were shot.

Williams said a tourniquet was on Ford’s upper left arm, where he was shot. He helped Ford get up and assisted him in climbing down toward Staff Sgt. Seth Howard.

A house at the river bottom served as a casualty collection point.

Williams said once Ford and Walding were wounded, the focus changed from a tactical, feasible mission.

“It immediately became, ‘Hey we got four wounded Americans, and we need to do whatever is possible to get them home safely,’ and that’s kind of what I think occupied my mindset from that point forward,” he said.

Williams went back up the mountain for Walding and noticed Walding had been shot in the leg.

Shurer tended to Behr who was shot in the hip and Morales, who was shot in the ankle.

Williams went halfway down the mountain to scope out a path to move his three injured teammates to a safe area.

“I knew that we couldn’t get up the same way that I had gone the other times just because we had been getting pretty heavy fire,” Williams said.

Williams said Howard pushed forward with his sniper rifle to provide cover, and Sgt. David Sanders and other teammates had found a route down and helped move casualties.

Trump said as the terrorists continued try to overrun their position, Williams raced back into battle.

“He fought for several more hours valiantly protecting the wounded and putting his own life in in great peril to save his comrades,” Trump said. “Matt’s incredible heroism helped ensure that not a single American soldier died in the battle of Shok Valley.”

Williams said they “held their ground” until medical evacuation aircraft were able to make it into the area.

“They ended up taking fire the whole time,” Williams said. “So they were awesome pilots. But they came in, and really, I mean, they saved the day, really, helping those guys get out of there.”

Shurer said when he received his own medal, he thought of it as doing his job, because he was the medic.

He said Williams receiving the medal makes “more sense.”

“I had been up on that mountain with him,” Shurer said. “I’d seen everything he was doing. He went up the mountain with Scott and I.”

Shruer said Williams established a defense in a tiny, crammed area with little cover and helped keep ground to get the casualties of the mountain.
Williams said he relied on his training to react and focus on his “buddies” and the wounded.

“At no one point in time did I ever just sit there and say, ‘This is it. It’s over,’” Williams said. “That type of thinking is not something that we do.”
Walton said Williams constantly “showed right back up,” under fire, physical stress and enemy activity.

“From my perspective, he did a great job, and he really epitomized the values of our team and the Special Forces in general,” Walton said.

Other teammates assigned to the unit who also received the Silver Star in 2008 included then-Sgt. Matthew Williams and Spc. Michael Carter.

Congressman Richard Hudson, whose district includes Fort Bragg, was at Wednesday night’s ceremony.

“There is no greater fighter than an American soldier, and Master Sgt. Williams is among the best of them,” Hudson said. “The history books will remember, and we will always be grateful for his heroism and courage.”

On Tuesday, Williams said he hopes to wear the medal with honor and distinction to represent “something that’s bigger,” than himself.

“The medal itself is more of a representation of a story of teamwork, never quitting, trusting in one another and doing what’s right and what needs to be done,” he said.