Daniel Daly, the Marine Twice Awarded the Medal of Honor

Nov 27 , 2025

Daniel Daly, the Marine Twice Awarded the Medal of Honor

The enemy surged forward, teeth bared and rifles blazing, but Sgt. Maj. Daniel Joseph Daly stood unmoved — a lone wall of defiance against chaos. Blood soaked the ground beneath his feet. The air reeked of gunpowder and death. And still, he dared his men to hold the line, shouting words that seemed less like orders and more like summons from a higher power.

From Jersey Streets to Savage Seas

Born in Glen Cove, New York, in 1873, Daniel Daly carried the gritty spirit of a working-class boy hardened by life before the uniform. No silver spoons. No soft days. Just a rough childhood that forged an instinct to survive—and to protect others at any cost.

His faith was never flamboyant or showy. It was a steady backbone, a quiet compass. “Blessed be the man who perseveres under trial…” (James 1:12). Daly’s life mirrored that scripture—tested in the fiery crucible of combat, emerging as a soldier of unbreakable resolve.

Twice Over: Valor Beyond Measure

If valor had a name in the Marine Corps, it was Daniel Daly. The only Marine awarded the Medal of Honor twice during his lifetime. The first came in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion in China. Surrounded, outnumbered, under relentless enemy fire at Tientsin, Daly reportedly shouted, “Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?” and surged forward, rallying his men to a ferocious counterattack.

That defiance wasn’t bravado—it was raw necessity. The mission was survival, their very souls bound by duty more sacred than fear.

His second Medal of Honor arrived during the First World War, at the Battle of Belleau Wood, France, in 1918. Amid a hailstorm of bullets and flares, Daly singlehandedly grabbed a rifle and grenades, charging enemy machine-gun positions. His relentless push saved countless Marines and kept their advance alive under hellish conditions.

Two Medals of Honor. No embellishment, no extras. Just cold steel courage under fire, earned where blood streams mark the ground. The citations describe his acts with sparse military language, but those who fought beside him knew the truth: Daly was a living legend.

The Voice of Men and the Soul of a Leader

Those who served with Daly remembered his voice above the roar. Not a commander barking orders from behind cover, but a brother pulling from hell to hell beside his men. His fearless leadership was never for glory; it was survival.

General Smedley Butler—himself a double Medal of Honor winner—called Daly “the fightingest Marine I ever knew.” Butler’s praise rang with reverence, echoing the hard-earned respect among warrior peers.

Daly’s medals adorned his chest, but he wore scars deeper than steel. Battle scars—and scars of a soldier’s burden. Yet he carried those pains with humility, an unwavering code etched in every fiber: Stand firm. Protect your brothers. Fight with fearless heart.

Lessons Burned in Flesh and Time

His legacy isn’t just medals. It is a lesson carved in grit and blood across two vastly different wars.

Courage wasn’t the absence of fear—it was charging forward through it.

Leadership wasn’t the spotlight. It was the willingness to be first in the mud, the blood, the fire.

And redemption? It came not just in survival, but in rising again from every desperate fight, every hellish night. For a combat veteran, that is the truest victory.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses…” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Daniel Daly’s story doesn’t ask for trophies or medals. It demands respect. Reverence. The hard truth that behind every medal lies a man who chose to sacrifice everything.