Daniel P. Matthews

United States Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipient

Daniel Paul Matthews (December 31, 1931 – March 28, 1953) was a United States Marine Corps sergeant who was killed in action in 1953 and posthumously awarded the Nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, during the Battle for Outpost Vegas, for his single handed attack under fire upon an enemy machine gun position which had prevented the evacuation of a wounded comrade. He was the 41st Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for heroism above and beyond the call of duty during the Korean War.

Daniel Paul Matthews and his twin brother were born in Van Nuys, California, on December 31, 1931. He was a member of the high school track and football teams before he left school in 1948 to work as a concrete mixer operator for C. W. Organ, a Los Angeles contractor.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps on February 21, 1951, during the Korean War (1950 1953), and after completing recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego that April, was promoted to private first class and assigned to Camp Pendleton. While serving there with the 6th Infantry Training Battalion and the 1st Battalion 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division, he was promoted to corporal in March 1952 and to sergeant in July 1952. Mathews sailed for South Korea in January 1953, joining Company F, 2nd Battalion 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, the following month. One month later, on March 28, 1953, Matthews, a rifle platoon squad leader, was killed in action when he single handedly attacked under fire with his rifle a Chinese three man machine gun team position on top of a hill outpost named "Vegas" in North Korea. After his death, Sgt. Mathew's body was escorted to the United States in May 1953, by his brother, who had enlisted in the United States Navy. Sgt. Matthews was buried in Glen Haven Cemetery, San Fernando, California. The Medal of Honor was presented to his parents on March 29, 1954, by Secretary of the Navy Robert B. Anderson. The Pentagon ceremony also included presentation of posthumous Medals of Honor to the families of Marine Sgt. James E. Johnson and Marine Cpl. Lee H. Phillips also killed in Korea.