My Toughest Battle: A Soldier’s Lifelong Struggle with Polio

The inspiring life story of a young boy stricken with polio who, through sheer grit, the drive to achieve, and love of the military, overcomes childhood paralysis, takes up the physical challenges of an infantry career and joins the elite airborne forces. Bill Matz earns his Ranger Tab and Master Parachute Badge, and rises to the highest levels of achievement in the U.S. Army. He serves in the DMZ in Korea, leads troops in combat in Vietnam, is wounded in the Tet Offensive, receives the Distinguished Service Cross for Valor, and leads troops again during the Panama invasion—all while wearing a specially fitted combat boot and a foot orthotic device on his atrophied “polio leg.” Later duties include serving as Executive Secretary to the Secretary of Defense during the Reagan years.

Retiring as a Major General in 1995 after numerous overseas deployments and an illustrious 30-year Army career, he works in the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Keeping veterans’ causes close to heart, he leads the fight on behalf of the wounded, disabled and their families as a member of the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission and as president of the National Association for Uniformed Services, and becomes the guardian of America’s war dead as secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

A witness to or participant in many of the most defining moments of American history of the last sixty years, Bill Matz retired “for the fifth time” in 2021 and remains active as a recognized public speaker and proponent for veterans and the military. My Toughest Battle portrays the personal challenges and inner resources he relied on to meet the demands of service to his nation as an infantryman and paratrooper in times of peace and war, and candidly reveals how he was able to achieve his goals while battling the debilitating effects of polio.