Nov 11 , 2025
Sgt. Maj. Daniel J. Daly, the Marine Who Earned Two Medals of Honor
Blood in the mud. Face burning from the cold sweat of the fight. You’re the only man left between a hundred enemies and the rest of your unit. The air’s thick with smoke and stale gunpowder. And still, you raise your bolt-action rifle—once. Twice. Three times—and you refuse to yield.
Sgt. Maj. Daniel Joseph Daly lived in those moments.
A Rough Start, A Steeled Soul
Daly was born into the hard streets of Glen Cove, New York, in 1873. A gritty kid with a fighter’s spirit, he enlisted young and fast. The Marine Corps found a man forged in iron and grit. Not just muscle, but heart.
He was a man of simple faith and fierce conviction. Not flashy piety. Quiet resolve. The kind that steady hands in hellish hours require. His code? Duty to country and brotherhood above all.
“I believe in the Lord,” Daly once said, but “I also believe in the Marines.” That dual allegiance shaped a warrior’s path.
The Boxer Rebellion: Defying Death
In 1900, the world was ablaze in the streets of Peking. The Boxer Rebellion swallowed nations whole, and Daly’s unit was tasked with defending the foreign legations surrounded by a fanatical uprising.
Under savage fire, this Marine stood recklessly fast. Twice honored with the Medal of Honor for his bravery during this chaos.
The first was for storming the enemy under heavy fire to deliver critical ammunition—alone, unflinching. Then again, he single-handedly repulsed a squad that threatened to overrun his position. His awards cite “extraordinary heroism” not once, but twice.
“During the action at Peking, Sgt. Daly, although under heavy fire, went outside the safety of the defenses to bring ammunition,” reads his Silver Star recommendation thereafter^1.
World War I: Legend in the Trenches
Years later, the drums of the Great War thundered across Europe. Daly, now a seasoned Gunnery Sergeant, found himself in the muck of Belleau Wood in 1918—a hellscape etched into history.
Enemy machine guns swept the ground like death incarnate. The Marines were pinned, soldiers dropping in heaps on the gore-soaked earth.
And then he did something immortal.
Daly yelled to his men to “Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?”
That raw, unforgiving cry shattered fear. He rallied the Marines, leading them over the trenches, single-handedly silencing a machinegun nest with hand grenades and rifle fire.
His second Medal of Honor came for this, awarded in 1918 for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, showing “exceptional leadership and courage under direct enemy fire.”^2 His name echoed down the lines as a symbol of fearlessness and grit.
Honors Etched in Blood and Bronze
Only two Marines have ever earned two Medals of Honor, and Daniel Daly is the fiercest among them.
He also received the Navy Cross and the Marine Corps Brevet Medal—testaments to a warrior who wasn’t just brave, but dependable, incorruptible, relentless.
Fellow Marines called him “the fightingest Marine that ever lived.” General John A. Lejeune summed it up best:
“Daly’s valor is etched in Marine Corps history. His courage was contagious. Men followed him to the gates of hell without hesitation.”^3
No pomp, no fanfare—just a quiet, deadly presence on the battlefield.
Legacy Carved Deep
Daly’s story refuses to die. It carries on not as myth but as raw remembrance—reminding every soldier what courage looks like in its purest form.
His battlefield cries still echo: the call to stand when death pulls at your sleeve.
More than medals, it’s the scars that speak. The sacrifices. The nights of unrelenting tension. The will to live and fight on, not for glory, but for each other.
And beneath it all—the unshakeable faith that hard work, faith, and honor will someday bring peace.
“The Lord is my strength and my shield,” Psalm 28:7 says. For Daly, that was no idle phrase. It was fuel.
To honor Sgt. Maj. Daniel J. Daly is to remember that true courage blooms not from the absence of fear, but from standing in the midst of it, refusing to be broken.
From the muck of China to the trenches of France, his legacy is a torch passed quietly in the night—shed blood as proof, an enduring lesson for all who bear arms.
Fight the good fight. Finish the race. Keep the faith.
Sources
1. Naval History and Heritage Command, “Medal of Honor Recipients: Boxer Rebellion” 2. U.S. Army Center of Military History, “Medal of Honor Recipients: World War I” 3. Lejeune, John A., Commandants of the Marine Corps, 1948
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