Valor Friday

I previously explored those who received two Medals of Honor (Pt 1 here, Pt 2 here, and Pt 3 here). I looked at ten of the 19 men who had been so honored. I left out five Marines who were awarded both the Army and Navy versions of the medal (two distinct awards) for the same action. I’ll be looking into them today and the remaining four, all Navy enlisted men for peacetime heroics, next week.

MATEJ KOCAK

Matej Kocak was born in 1882 in the Kingdom of Hungary (itself part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in what today is part of Slovakia. He emigrated to the United States in 1906. As many immigrants have done, and continue to do to this day, he almost immediately enlisted into the service.

In 1907, Kocak joined the US Marine Corps. He spent four years at League Island, Pennsylvania in the Marine Barracks there. At the expiration of his enlistment he traveled to New York, and a few months later reenlisted into the Corps, with a posting at the Marine Barracks New York, New York. While in New York, Kocak was active with the local Slovak community and Catholic Sokol.

Kocak deployed to Veracruz in 1914 for six months during the American occupation of the Mexican city. His enlistment expired on Christmas 1915, but he again re-upped shortly thereafter, with a transfer to New Orleans.

With the massive European World War underway, which involved his native land, Kocak’s Marine duties instead saw him to the Dominican Republic. Here, as part of the Banana Wars, he saw minor combat action against native bandits.

Kocak was promoted to corporal in March 1917. The following month the US entered the Great War. By December, Kocak and the Marines of his 5th Marine Regiment had arrived on the Western Front.

In January 1918 he was assigned to the 66th Company of the 5th Marines. Promoted to sergeant, on 1 June, they were at the forefront of the Battle of Belleau Wood. Belleau Wood would be one of the most pivotal and storied battles in Marine Corps history. All of the Marines I discuss here were participants in the battle.

In the year or so since the US had entered the war, it took time to deploy their forces. The first ground combat units didn’t arrive in force until the end of 1917, as Kocak had in December of that year. In the Allied defense on the Western Front, the Allied joint command structure then had to integrate the Americans. They Allies were slow to accept the Americans, eager as they were to participate, they had not proven themselves in battle. The Allies by now had been brutally fighting tooth and nail for every inch of ground for more than three years.

In the spring of 1918, the Russian Front fell as the Bolsheviks fought the White Army in a Russian civil war. The Germans had some 50 divisions freed up which they wanted to commit to the Western Front. They hoped they could break the Allies before the Americans could be fully committed. This became what we would know as the Aisne-Marne Offensive.

On 1 June, Château-Thierry and Vaux fell to the Germans and they then moved into Belleau Wood. It would be here that Kocak would become part of one of the US Marines’ most storied battles.

Belleau Wood saw two US Army divisions, reinforced with a Marine brigade, supported by elements of both the French 6th Army and British IX Corps square off against five divisions of Germans.

As the two armies clashed, the Marines and their American comrades earned the respect of their French and Allied counterparts. The French were so enamored with the Marines in particular that they renamed the Belleau Wood forest Bois de la Brigade de Marine (“Wood of the Marine Brigade”). They awarded the 5th and 6th Marines the Croix de Guerre as a unit award, which Marines of those regiments wear to this day as a fourragere to remember the losses.

The battle would begin with the German advance being halted in the first few days of June. The Allies then massed and pushed back hard on the Germans. On 6 June the Allies attacked, but were repulsed. It was during that advance that then-Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly uttered his famous “Do you want to live forever?” line as he encouraged his men to charge forward.

Similarly on the 8th the Germans attacked and were stopped. With hundreds of casualties piled up on the Allied side, the Americans and French unleashed a hellish artillery barrage. The dense forest, a vibrant hunting ground before the war, was lain waste by tens of thousands of artillery shells dropped on it. It turned into a jungle of toppled, tangled trees, unrecognizable from what it had been mere months before.

Starting on the 10th, the Marines attacked the Germans a total of six times before breaking their backs and securing the woods totally. The fighting at times devolved into hand-to-hand bayonet fighting. During the battle the Americans faced a German opponent that routinely and judiciously deployed mustard gas. A German soldier, one of only 30 survivors of his company of 120 men, said “We have Americans opposite us who are terribly reckless fellows.”

A German military report classified the Marines as “vigorous, self-confident, and remarkable marksmen …” and General John Pershing (commander of the American Expeditionary Force) said “The deadliest weapon in the world is a United States Marine and his rifle.” According to legend, the Germans called the Marines “Teufelshunde” (meaning “Devil Dogs”), a name proudly worn by Marines ever since.

The Americans (largely the Marines) suffered nearly 10,000 casualties during the battle. Eighteen hundred of those were killed in action. After the victory at Belleau Wood, Kocak’s 5th Marines were pressed into service again, in the Battle of Soissons.

On 18 July, just a few weeks after they had so gloriously proven their battlefield mettle, the 5th Marines were to play a role in the Soissons area of France. The battle was part of the much larger Aisne-Marne Counter-offensive. After halting and pushing back the Germans, the Allies, flush with fresh and eager American men and equipment, organized a massive offensive of their own.

The objective at Soissons was to cut off German supply lines in the area of the Marne, preventing them from getting provisions to their troops defending the territorial gains they’d made. The successful battle became the turning point of the war, as Germany would remain on the defensive and retreat for the rest of the war.

As Kocak’s battalion was moving forward on that first day of battle, their advance was halted by a hidden enemy machine gun nest. Sergeant Kocak then moved alone, through enemy fire, without any covering fire from his own men who were pinned down by the enemy, until he was upon the machine gun nest.

Kocak, with bayonet affixed, charged into the enemy emplacement. Once he drove the gun crew away, he then found and organized a formation of 25 French Colonial troops who had been separated from their unit. He led these men in an assault against another German machine gun nest, silencing that position as well.

For these acts, Kocak received both the Army and Navy Medals of Honor. He was also cited for gallantry during this period (18 July to 22 July) by the Commanding General of the US 2nd Division. This award was in the form of a Silver Citation Star to be affixed to the World War I Victory Medal. The Silver Citation Star, in 1932, was changed to its own medal, the Silver Star (with award to be retroactive to WWI).

As summer wore into fall and the Germans were on their back foot, the 5th Marines continued to fight. Kocak’s unit participated in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in September, and later that month, the massive Meuse–Argonne offensive. Meuse–Argonne would be the last battle of the war, leading right up to the literal final minute of the conflict.

On the second day of the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge, on 4 October 1918, Sergeant Matej Kocak was killed in action. The battle had seen two American divisions drive two Imperial German divisions back, keeping the Champagne region of France from the Germans.

Unfortunately, all of Kocak’s gallantry awards were made posthumously. He is buried in the Meuse–Argonne American Cemetery in France.

JOHN PRUITT

John Pruitt was 20 years old when he enlisted into the Marine Corps in 1917 right after the American entry into World War I. He entered the service from Phoenix, Arizona, but had been born in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

After completing recruit training, Pruitt was assigned to the 6th Marine Regiment. He too was at the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge. Before that he had been promoted to corporal and had seen service in all the same battles as Matej Kocak had.

On 3 October 1918, the first day of the Battle of Blanc Mont, Pruitt, much like Kocak, also assaulted not one, but two, enemy machine gun positions. Corporal Pruitt’s lone charge at both positions, personally killing two of the enemy in the process, allowed his company to continue their move forward.

Pruitt continued to advance on the enemy and a short time later he captured 40 enemy in a nearby dugout. He then took up a position from which he could snipe the enemy. As he was shooting the enemy, a shell fragment struck and killed him.

Pruitt received the Medal of Honor from both the Army and Navy for his heroics that day. It wasn’t the first time he’d distinguished himself. He thrice earned the Silver Citation Star for valor in action.

His first Silver Star was for aiding in the capture of an enemy machine gun position on 15 September near Thiaucourt, France. His second and third were for gallantry in action at Blanc Mont, France. Those awards list the date as “1 – 10 October 1918”, though he died on the 4th. Coincidentally, the 4th of October was Pruitt’s 22nd birthday.

Pruitt’s remains were repatriated to the United States and he now lays in Arlington National Cemetery.

ERNEST JANSON

Ernest Janson was 22 when he first enlisted into the US Army around 1900 from New York City. He served for nearly ten years before something happened. Janson went AWOL, leaving the Army without leave, and returned to New York.

Changing his name to Charles Hoffman (which he’d serve under until 1921). He then enlisted into the Marine Corps in 1910 and was promoted to corporal the following year.

Janson participated in the Marines’ Nicaraguan Occupation in 1912 before another honorable discharge in 1914. He re-enlisted four days later and was soon promoted to sergeant. He saw service aboard battleship USS Nebraska and armored cruiser USS Montana. His final assignment before the US entry to the World War was to Norfolk, Virginia.

When the Marines’ mobilized their forces for France, Janson was given a wartime duration appointment to the rank of gunnery sergeant and assigned to the 5th Marine Regiment.

During the Battle of Belleau Wood, on the 6th of June during one of the American’s first charges at the German lines, Janson’s company reached their objection Hill 142. At dawn the Marines had attacked, moving forward through a wheat field. The whole of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines were to attack but only two companies were ready at daybreak. They advanced in waves, but the enemy had the field covered with machine gun and small arms fire. This cut down many of the few men they started the battle with.

Despite the odds, the Marines took the hill early in the day. The cost was heavy. One of the companies lost their commanding officer almost immediately and all but one officer as the battle moved forward. The other company commander had lost all five of his junior officers.

The enemy sensed that the Marines’ had a tenuous hold to their objective and started a series of brutal counterattacks. As a staff non-commissioned officer in a depleted company, Gunny Janson would have been a key leader for the Marines as they tried to consolidate their positions.

Janson was attempting to organize his men on the north slope of Hill 142 when he saw 12 Germans approaching. They were crawling forward with five light machine guns.

Janson gave a warning to his men and then charged forward alone, without hesitation or any reasonable sense of self-preservation. With his bayonet fixed, Janson cut into the two machine gun section leaders with the spear. After seeing this one-man terror bayonet their leadership, the remaining enemy fled.

Janson received both Army and Navy versions of the Medal of Honor for this action as well as a Silver Citation Star for the period of 6 June to 10 June 1918. Janson was the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor during World War I. During the fighting Janson was severely wounded. Evacuated from the battlefield, he didn’t return to the US until November.

After recuperating, Janson was again discharged honorably in April 1919. He enlisted again, but this time under his real name, a few weeks later. He served this enlistment doing recruiting duty in New York City.

In 1921, Janson was selected to be the Marine Corps’ pallbearer at the burial of the Unknown Soldier on Armistice Day that year. He was the only Marine Corps enlisted pallbearer.

Janson continued serving in New York City until he was moved to Quantico in 1926, returning to his wartime rank of gunnery sergeant. A month later he requested retirement. The Marines promoted him one grade to sergeant major before granting his retirement.

After the military, Janson returned to New York, living on Long Island. After a brief illness he died in 1930 at age 51.

LOUIS CUKELA

As with Matej Kocak, Louis Cukela was also born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was a few years younger, being born in 1888 in an area of the empire that is now Croatia. An ethnic Croat, he lost his mother when he was only 12. He was educated at the Merchant Academy for two years and then two years at the Royal Gymnasium (Gymnasium in the original, Germanic meaning of the word is more like “university” than how we English-speakers are familiar with the use of the word).

Cukela emigrated to the United States in 1913, just a year or so before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary would spark the First World War in his former homeland. He and his brother settled in Minnesota while their father and three sisters remained in Austria-Hungary.

WIth the start of the World War, Cukela enlisted in the United States Army in 1914. He served a two year enlistment, being discharged as a corporal with the 13th Infantry Regiment in 1916. Six months later, and just a few months before the US entered the war, Cukela enlisted with the US Marine Corps.

Assigned to the 66th Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment he was with the Devil Dogs as they fought in all their major engagements on the Western Front, from the Belleau Wood to the final days of the Meuse-Argonne.

Cukela, a sergeant by now, was given his first Silver Citation Star during the German Spring Offensive in 1918, the prelude to the Battle of Belleau Wood. During the Battle of Soissons in July 1918 he earned two more. Soissons was also the location where he earned his highest honors.

On the first day of the battle, 18 July 1918, then-Gunnery Sergeant Cukela’s company was advancing through the woods. They were held up by an enemy strong point. Moving to the forefront, the Gunny continued to advance alone. Ignoring the pleas of his own men, he went right into the mouth of the beast as it were.

Despite drawing heavy enemy fire, Cukela crawled to beyond the German line. He then moved on the first of two machine gun positions. Storming into the emplacement, he bayoneted the crew, silencing the gun.

Grabbing the enemy’s grenades, he used them to then storm the rest of the emplacement. Using the enemy’s own gun pit, with German grenades he destroyed the enemy resistance single-handedly. He captured four Germans and another two undamaged machine guns.

Cukela received both the Army and Navy Medals of Honor for this action. He was wounded once here and again in later fighting during the war, but they were both minor injuries that didn’t require medical treatment.

On 26 September 1918 Cukela was given a battlefield commission to the rank of second lieutenant, which was in 1919 confirmed as a regular commission in the active Marine Corps. After the war, he remained in the Marines. Promoted to first lieutenant in 1919, captain in 1921, and to major when he retired in 1940.

After the war, Cukela served in a variety of posts. He was part of the Occupation of Haiti in the times of the Second Caco War (1919-1920). The Marines were fighting a counterinsurgency. Cukela was accused of committing war crimes by razing villages and executing a group of prisoners inside his camp. He was questioned by Congress about this but was not court martialed.

He saw further overseas service in the Philippines and China. During the 1930s he was seconded to the Civilian Conservation Corps (a New Deal program to provide public works jobs to unemployed youth, which was run as a paramilitary organization) for a year. His final assignment before retiring was post quartermaster at the Marine base at Norfolk.

Cukela’s retirement was effective 30 Jun 1940. With the subsequent mobilization of the US military in response to the ongoing Second World War raging across Europe and Asia, he was recalled to active duty exactly one month later.

During World War II the heroic Marine field grade officer was in his 50s and was spared a combat assignment. He served stateside throughout the war at Norfolk and Philadelphia. He again retired in 1946 after his second World War. He had served a combined 32 years in active federal service.

Cukela’s retirement was all too short. He passed away in 1956 at age 67 at the US Naval Hospital in Bethesda. He is interred at Arlington National Cemetery. He married in 1923 to Minnie Myrtle Strayer of Mifflintown, Pennsylvania. She died just a few months after her husband, also in 1956. At the time of Major Cukela’s death he was survived by one sister in Croatia.

JOHN J KELLY

One interesting note about the Medal of Honor is the number of Irishmen that have received the honor. About 58% of Medals of Honor have been awarded to Irish-Americans, more than twice as many to any other ethnic group. So it should be no surprise that the very common Irish name Kelly (or Kelley) has come up. Twenty Kelly’s have received the Medal of Honor, five of those had the given name of John.

Here’s where I think it’s really interesting. They span American wars from the Civil War (when the Medal of Honor was created) through the Korean War, one in each major conflict.

• Second Class Fireman John Kelley (US Navy) received his Medal of Honor for actions during the Civil War in 1862.
• Corporal John J. H. Kelly (US Army) received his MoH for gallantry in action on 9 September 1874, in Texas during the Indian Campaigns.
• Technical Sergeant John D. Kelly (US Army) received a posthumous MoH for bravery in June 1944 near Cherbourg, France in World War II
• Private First Class John Doran Kelly (USMC) received a posthumous MoH for actions in 1952 during the Korean War.

The list above is missing the fifth John Kelly, in this case John Joseph from Chicago, who received two Medals of Honor during the First World War while with the 6th Marine Regiment.

Born in Chicago and raised on the city’s south side in 1898, Kelly enlisted in the Marine Corps in May 1917. This was just five weeks after the US had declared war on Germany and propelled the country into the European war. He was assigned to the 6th Marine Regiment out of Quantico, which arrived in France in February 1918.

As with the other Marines on this list, Kelly saw combat action throughout the next nine months at Château-Thierry, St. Mihiel, Blanc Mont and the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Along the way, Kelly made a name for himself with his bravery.

Kelly was small in build (5’5” and 112 pounds at enlistment) and apparently possessed “legendary speed, agility and courage darting through battle areas” according to one military report. He was thus often used as a runner, carrying vital information between command elements. This is often a suicide job. If your unit is pinned down by the enemy, or worse fully surrounded, it is the runner that has to find a way through to get a message out for help.

Kelly received his first Silver Citation Star Chateau-Thierry, France for action 6 June – 10 July 1918. He received two more for bravery at St. Mihiel, France from 12 – 16 September 1918. He received his fourth for helping capture an enemy machine gun position and taking four enemy prisoners near Thiaucourt, France on 15 September 1918.

Perhaps because of this event, or his later heroics, he came to be known as “Machine Gun Kelly” among his fellow Marines. He was also known, like many Marines and Irishmen, for not being one to back away from a barroom brawl. He at least once received disciplinary action for this, which likely explains why he never advanced beyond private.

During one of Kelly’s forays through the battlefield, while carrying a message he happened upon a Marine whose leg had been blown off. Wrapping a tourniquet around the stump, Kelly tried to carry the man out on his shoulders. Being too large for the thin Kelly to carry, Kelly went to a nearby farmhouse. There he found a ladder, brought it back to the Marine, tied him to it, and used it as a litter to drag the man off the battlefield.

It was during the brutal fighting at the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge on the first day of the battle, 3 October 1918, that Kelly would join the others of Clan Kelly on the Medal of Honor Roll.

As the 6th Marines were storming Blanc Mont, they came upon an enemy machine gun emplacement. Private Kelly ran forward, alone, 100 yards ahead of the line of advance to personally assault the gun position. He did so through the American barrage on the stronghold with his pistol in his left hand and a grenade in his right.

At the machine gun nest he tossed a grenade, striking and killing the gun’s operator. He then shot another German with his pistol. The remaining men in the position surrendered, and Kelly returned back to the Marines’ line of battle with eight prisoners. The return trip was also through the ongoing friendly fire raining down around him.

He received both the Army and Navy Medals of Honor for that action. General Pershing himself pinned one of the medals on him personally. By that time the war had ended, with Kelly having participated in the march to the Rhine in the final days of the war and in occupation duty in the Rhineland since the Armistice went into effect.

Kelly returned to the US and was given an honorable discharge as a private (not even of the first class variety) 14 August 1919. During all of his wartime heroics he had been wounded twice. Once by a piece of shrapnel in his thigh and the other from surviving a gas attack on 14 June 1918. The injuries would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The handsome young Kelly, with an infectious grin, had trouble adjusting to civilian life. He was only 21 when he was discharged, but had experienced a lifetime’s worth of trauma, both physical and mental.

Kelly drifted for much of his life after the service, mostly between Florida and Chicago. He never married and never had children. Unfortunately, as many veterans do, he self medicated with alcohol, which became a large part of his life. It cost him his life in the end when he died of cirrhosis in 1957 at age 59 in Florida. He was listed as living in Chicago at the time, and that’s where he is buried.

At the time of his death, Kelly was the last living double Medal of Honor recipient (Louis Cukela having died the year prior). Kelly was interred in a family grave, between two of his sisters. From the time of his death until 1996, his gravemarker only read “Brother.” There was no notation about his wartime service or his many valor awards. This was rectified in 1996 by local Marines and veterans groups. They secured a government headstone for Kelly.

In 1938, Kelly had told a newspaper, “The guys that are dead are greater heroes than I am. All I did was use a little headwork.”

Category: Army, Historical, Marines, Medal of Honor, Valor