The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Harold Mervin Olson (ASN: RA-17262076), United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with Battery B, 82d Anti-Aircraft Artillery (Automatic Weapons) Battalion (Self Propelled), 2d Infantry Division, in action against the enemy in the vicinity of Changn-yong, Korea, on 1 September 1950. On this date, Corporal Olson was a Squad Leader of an anti-aircraft firing vehicle attached to an infantry battalion which had been surrounded and was desperately defending its perimeter. At dark the enemy overran and captured a hill overlooking the battalion positions. From this point the enemy delivered devastating mortar and small-arms fire on the Battalion Command Post, the Battalion Aid Station, and the motor vehicles in the area. Ordered to place fire on the enemy position, Corporal Olson and his squad covered the positions with such intensity and accuracy that the enemy fire was silenced and thirty enemy soldiers killed, and this without regard for the fact that in order to do so they must expose themselves to the intense enemy fire. The hill was retaken a few minutes later by the infantry. The inspirational and gallant heroism displayed by Corporal Olson on this occasion, without regard for his own life, was in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.