Daniel Daly, Belleau Wood Marine Who Earned Two Medals of Honor

Jan 12 , 2026

Daniel Daly, Belleau Wood Marine Who Earned Two Medals of Honor

The sky split with gunfire. Bullets whipped past. Men fell, screaming. In the chaos, one man stood unyielding. Sgt. Maj. Daniel Joseph Daly—his eyes steel, his heart unbreakable. Fear never found a home in that soul. He was the embodiment of grit under fire. Two Medals of Honor would barely tell the story.

Beginnings in Brooklyn and the Code of a Warrior

Born in 1873, Brooklyn shaped Daly—a tough, working-class kid with a fighter’s spirit. Enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1899, he carried with him the rough edges of city life forged into iron discipline.

Daly’s faith wasn’t loud but real. A belief in something greater grounded him, a moral compass pointing true north when chaos came calling. His code was simple: protect your brothers at all costs and stand firm when evil threatened.

“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?” —Daniel Daly, rallying Marines at Belleau Wood

That line wasn’t bravado. It was a dare, a call to courage that echoed through the hell of war.

The Boxer Rebellion: Valor Beyond the Call

In 1900, the streets of Peking burned as foreign legations were under siege. Daly’s first Medal of Honor came from one such fight—engaging enemy forces with relentless fierceness. More than once, he risked his life to rescue comrades under heavy fire. His actions exemplified “semper fidelis” in blood and sweat.

The citation is terse but heavy with meaning: “In the presence of the enemy, distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism…”[^1]. He lived it every day—not for medals, but because duty left no room for hesitation.

World War I: Belleau Wood and the Immortal Fighting Spirit

The Great War saw the dawn of machine guns and artillery hell. July 1918, Belleau Wood in France—Marines fought tooth and nail to stop the German advance. Daly, now a seasoned veteran, led from the front. His presence was a beacon for men swallowed by fear and gunpowder.

Under relentless fire, with woods burning around them, Daly’s shouted challenge became legend:

“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?”[^2]

He charged into the guttering inferno, rallying troops who thought they’d seen the end. It was raw courage, pure and unyielding. Men followed him because they saw steel, not bluster.

Recognition Carved in Valor

Daly is one of the few to earn two Medals of Honor, a feat unmatched among Marines. His first was during the Boxer Rebellion; the second for conspicuous gallantry at Belleau Wood[^3]. Silver Stars and other decorations lit his uniform, but the real measure was the lives saved and battles turned.

His fellow Marines remembered him as a man who “walked the line between life and death and never blinked.” Commanders valued not just his fighting skill, but his ability to inspire raw, desperate courage under fire.

“Daly was the finest Marine I ever knew,” said General Smedley Butler, himself a two-time Medal of Honor recipient[^4]. That’s no small praise.

Legacy Written in Blood and Brotherhood

The story of Daniel Daly is more than medals. It’s about what steel looks like when hammered by fire. It’s the sacrifice locked behind every shout, every volley of rifle fire where odds were stacked against you.

His example teaches that courage isn’t the absence of fear—it’s the decision to stand anyway. It reminds us that leadership is sacrifice, and that the scars carried by veterans are writing on the soul.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you.” —Deuteronomy 31:6

Daly’s battles are echoes in eternity—not because of glory, but because the fight for honor, sacrifice, and brotherhood never dies. He blazed a path through the darkest thickets of war so others might walk more freely.

When the smoke clears, and history trims its tales, the real victory is the legacy left in those who dare to stand. Sgt. Maj. Daniel Joseph Daly did just that. A warrior’s warrior. A Marine’s legend.

[^1]: U.S. Marine Corps History Division, Medal of Honor Recipients: Daniel J. Daly [^2]: Harries, Meirion, and Susie Harries. Soldiers of the Somme, Penguin Books, 2005 [^3]: U.S. Army Center of Military History, World War I Medal of Honor Recipients [^4]: Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket, 1935