Trump presents Medal of Honor to second Green Beret for actions in Battle of Shok Valley

By COREY DICKSTEIN | STARS AND STRIPES
Published: October 30, 2019

WASHINGTON — With Green Berets pinned against a cliff atop an icy 10,000-foot Afghanistan mountain during a hellish firefight to capture an entrenched enemy leader, then-Army Sgt. Matthew O. Williams was where he needed to be.

When two Green Berets were shot, Williams’ comrades said he was there to move them down that 100-foot cliff, where they could be evacuated from the fighting. When his teammates’ radios stopped working, Williams was there to relay information between the soldiers who were fighting from several positions on the mountain. And, when those soldiers needed cover, there was Williams leading Afghan commandos to establish fighting positions that would prove critical to holding off an enemy force that vastly outnumbered them.

Williams actions, according to Pentagon records, allowed the team of 12 Green Berets — Operational Detachment-Alpha 3336 — and some 100 Afghan commandos to escape that savage, six-hour gun battle April 6, 2008 in eastern Nuristan province, which would become known as the Battle of Shok Valley.

“He chose to go up that mountain the first time knowing what was happening up there, he started just taking initiative — setting up those defenses that we needed,” Retired Army Staff Sgt. Ron Shurer recalled Tuesday of Williams’ actions that day. “He was always just finding something to do whether somebody told him to or not. He always seemed to be there.”

-snip-