Decorations register · Notice Nearby
No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the decoration and the writing, not an invented face.
Nathan Matthew Cox
1975–2008
Staff Sergeant
Viper Company (B), 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division (Kunar Province / Korengal Valley, Afghanistan)
Documented decorations
Purple Heart
Named in VA #VeteranOfTheDay (6 Sep 2023) as posthumous Purple Heart; also listed on VA Veterans Legacy Memorial decorations. Awarded posthumously and presented to his widow.
Public sources
Bronze Star Medal
Named in the same VA #VeteranOfTheDay profile as posthumous Bronze Star Medal; also on VA VLM. Do not invent a Combat “V” without a matching official device list on this page.
Public sources
Nathan Matthew Cox’s Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal are named in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ #VeteranOfTheDay profile and on his Veterans Legacy Memorial decorations list. The VA account states both awards were presented posthumously to his widow after he was killed by an IED in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley on September 20, 2008. This decorations page records those two types from those VA sources. It will not invent a Silver Star the VA pages do not name.
He reenlisted in his late twenties, served in Iraq, and deployed to Kunar Province with Viper Company of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry. Rock Island National Cemetery holds his grave. Those facts are public. They are not additional medals printed here.
He is not yet on a war-roll essay. A family’s grief and a valley nicknamed for death are not scoreboard language. This page only carries the decorations the VA named.
This name is not yet on a war-roll essay. The decorations above are the documented public record this register will stand on until that essay is written.
A publisher register — not a verification
This decorations register is publisher-curated from public records — Medal of Honor Society citations, published general orders, and official Army, Navy, and Marine Corps biographies. It is not a verified-veteran product. Notice Nearby does not certify service and does not issue badges.
A paid or unpaid memorial does not enroll anyone here. Checkout, VET50, and a family’s mention of service on an obituary are not applications to this list. We add a name only when a public official source names the decoration.
Claiming a decoration that was not awarded is stolen valor. It is a disrespect to those who earned the medal and, in some cases, a federal crime. This register will not invent an award to fill a page.
These pages are a historical register. They are not Legal Publication, not a newspaper notice, and not proof that a statute was satisfied.