The Patriot Post® · Profiles of Valor: Matej Kocak and Louis Cukela
This week, I had the opportunity to travel with two Operation Enduring Freedom recipients of the Medal of Honor. I have known former Navy SEAL Britt Slabinski and former Army infantryman Sal Giunta for years, and these men are an inspiration to young people across the nation.
Next in my Profiles of Valor series are the stories of two men from many generations before Britt and Sal, but whose distinguished legacy they carry forward.
Sgt Matej Kocak and Maj Louis Cukela are World War I Marine double Medal of Honor recipients, and I thank researcher Kris Harper for her background on these men for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
As I noted in my last profile of double recipients, of the 3,533 military recipients of our nation’s highest award for valor, there are 19 U.S. service members who have received two Medals of Honor. Among them, 14 received two Medals for separate actions of valor, and five WWI Marines received both the Army and Navy Medals of Honor for the same action because they were deployed with Army units. (Following WWI, regulations were changed so that two different service branch Medals of Honor would not be awarded for a single action.)
Matej Kocak was born in Gbely, Slovakia, then known as Egbell, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents owned a small farming plot and Matej and his brother spent their young lives helping their father on their farm.
As Kris Harper notes:
When he was 23 years old, Matej fell in love with a peasant girl and wanted to marry her. His father forbade the marriage, however, because the girl was of a lower social class. After long and vehement arguments, Matej accepted he could not marry her and shortly thereafter, he packed his few belongings and left home. Several weeks later, Matej Kocak arrived in New York … with no money and no trade or skills with which to support himself. He traveled west and soon found work as a cook in a mining community near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He quickly decided, however, that he wanted more excitement and adventure out of life than cooking provided and the following year he joined the U.S. Marine Corps.
Harper continues:
For the next 11 years Kocak participated in military interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean, where his military skills were tested and honed. When the United States entered World War I, Kocak was part of the first Marine regiment to deploy. After initial training in the Gondrecourt region of France, the Marine regiments were incorporated into the U.S. Army 2nd Division and the unit moved towards St. Mihiel. … On one occasion, Kocak and a friend from his unit, SGT Louis Cukela, thought they heard an enemy patrol approaching from across No Man’s Land, the disputed area between the opposing trenches. They selected a mislabeled flare from the stock pile left behind by previous occupants of the trench and fired it off. Instead of a white star burst intended to illuminate the area, the flare erupted into a green star, the signal for gas. The warning quickly spread down the trenches and men donned their masks and other protective gear until learning it was a false alarm.
What did Kocak learn from that experience?
On another occasion, Kocak intentionally gave a false gas-attack alarm. During a quiet afternoon, several men in the rear were visiting a Y.M.C.A. concession which sold snack food and cigarettes, staffed by an unpleasant and unpopular man. Kocak came running into the hut calling, “gas! gas!” and the concessionaire immediately left to fetch his gear. When he returned, the soldiers were gone … as were all the chocolates and cigarettes.
Next:
In the spring of 1918, Kocak, now a sergeant, and his unit moved towards Paris. … In June, the Germans initiated a powerful drive into Allied territory. The Allies had been taken by surprise and confusion reigned; lines of communication were broken and no one knew where the enemy units were located. In a fortuitous breach of regulation, a frustrated soldier shot a pigeon with his pistol, intending to cook and eat it. As luck would have it, the pigeon was a carrier for the German army and carried information on the location of the enemy positions. Kocak’s unit, the 2nd Division, was diverted to meet the oncoming enemy. … Then, on July 15th, the Germans attacked along the Marne River and the 2nd Division moved north to join the 1st Division and the French 1st Algerians under General Foch in the Marne Salient.
It was there, in a surprise attack on 18 July, that Kocak would earn his Medal of Honor.
As his double citation notes:
For extraordinary heroism while serving with the 66th Company, 5th Regiment, 2d Division, in action in the Viller-Cottertes section, south of Soissons, France, 18 July 1918. When a hidden machine-gun nest halted the advance of his battalion, Sgt. Kocak went forward alone unprotected by covering fire and worked his way in between the German positions in the face of heavy enemy fire. Rushing the enemy position with his bayonet, he drove off the crew. Later the same day, Sgt. Kocak organized French colonial soldiers who had become separated from their company and led them in an attack on another machine-gun nest which was also put out of action.
In the same battle, Kocak’s friend Sgt Louis Cukela, a native of Split, Croatia, which was then the Kingdom of Dalmatia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, would also distinguish himself in combat.
As Harper notes in her profile of Cukela:
In 1913 he immigrated to the United States with his brother, settling in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The following year he enlisted in the Army and was honorably discharged two years later. In early 1917, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and was assigned to the 5th Marine Regiment, the same unit as Matej Kocak.
Near his friend Kocak at the Battle of Belleau Woods, Cukela earned his Medal of Honor.
As his double citation notes:
For extraordinary heroism while serving with the 66th Company, 5th Regiment, during action in the Forest de Retz, near Viller-Cottertes, France, 18 July 1918. Sgt. Cukela advanced alone against an enemy strong point that was holding up his line. Disregarding the warnings of his comrades, he crawled out from the flank in the face of heavy fire and worked his way to the rear of the enemy position. Rushing a machine-gun emplacement, he killed or drove off the crew with his bayonet, bombed out the remaining part of the strong point with German hand grenades, and captured two machine guns and four men.
In addition to their Medals of Honor, both Kocak and Cukela were awarded the French Medaille Militaire.
Notably, there were three other Army Medal of Honor recipients for actions in that battle: 2LT Samuel Parker, PVT Daniel Edwards, and PVT George Dilboy.
Matej Kocak was killed in action on 5 October 1918 at the Second Battle of the Marne. He is buried in the Meuse Argonne American Cemetery in France.
Louis Cukela returned home in 1918 and served in the Marine Corps until he retired in 1940 as a Major.
Harper notes, “Throughout his lifetime, Louis Cukela’s ethnicity was often challenged; he was called an Austrian, a Slav, a Yugoslav, a Serb and a Croat. His typical response was that he was an ‘American Marine.’”
Matej Kocak and Louis Cukela: Ordinary men faced with extraordinary circumstances, they summoned the greatest measure of courage to place their lives in imminent peril to save others. Their example of valor — humble American Patriots defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty — is eternal. Live your life worthy of their sacrifice.
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
Follow Mark Alexander on X/Twitter.
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform standing in harm’s way in defense of American Liberty, and for the families awaiting their safe return. Pray also for our Veterans, First Responders, and their families.
Please consider a designated gift to support the National Medal of Honor Sustaining Fund’s character education initiatives through Patriot Foundation Trust’s online donor page, or by check payable to “NMoH Sustaining Fund” and mail it to:
Generosity Trust
National MOH Sustaining Fund
345 Frazier Avenue, Unit 205
Chattanooga TN 37405
Thank you for supporting The Patriot Post, our nation’s premier journal of American Liberty.