DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS
1st. Lt. Michael J. Williams

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
Headquarters, United States Army Vietnam
APO San Francisco 96375

GENERAL ORDERS
NUMBER 489

AWARD OF THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS

TC 320. The following AWARD is announced.

WILLIAMS, MICHAEL J. FIRST LIEUTENANT INFANTRY United States Army Company A 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 3d Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), APO 96383.
Awarded: Distinguished Service Cross
Date of action: 25 July 1968
Theater: Republic of Vietnam
Authority: By direction of the President, under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved 25 July 1963.

Reason: For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam: First Lieutenant Williams distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 25 July 1968 as a platoon leader during combat operations near Cu Chi. Lieutenant Williams' company was met by fierce small arms and machine gun fire as it was inserted by helicopter into an enemy-held area. Crossing seventy-five meters of bullet swept rice paddy, he reached a hedgerow in which the majority of the hostile positions were concealed. He quickly silenced one machine gun with a hand grenade, and then crawled through the bushes, methodically destroying the communists strongholds and killing the occupants. Despite receiving numerous fragmentation wounds in his legs from an enemy hand grenade, he stood up and charged a machine gun position which had his comrades pinned down. Completely exposing himself to the hostile fusillade, he tossed a grenade into the bunker's opening and used the fortification itself as a shield from the blast. After insuring that the machine gun had been rendered useless, he crawled into the open rice paddy and began moving back to his men, but was shot through both legs by the communists and again received fragmentation wounds in his legs from an enemy hand grenade. Realizing that he would be killed if he moved, Lieutenant Williams played dead for eight hours not more than twenty feet from the hostile positions. When darkness came he dragged himself more than three hundred meters back to his unit's night location. First Lieutenant Williams' extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

FOR THE COMMANDER: