The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Captain (Infantry) Richard E. Lively (ASN: 0-2000448), United States Army, for gallantry in action as Commanding Officer of Company M, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division, in action against an armed enemy on 29 November 1950, in the vicinity of Kaechon, Korea. On that date his regiment was fighting its way out of an encirclement by numerically superior hostile forces. Cut off from his battalion, with a group of his men and a number of Allied soldiers, and under intense fire by the enemy who was about to overrun his position, Captain Lively courageously leaped into the open in order to retrieve an abandoned 75-mm. recoilless rifle. Heedless of the murderous enemy fire and shouting to his men to bring him ammunition, he rushed his group of men to higher ground where he set up a base of fire to permit the withdrawal of other troops. Captain Lively personally manned the recoilless rifle and openly exposed himself in so doing in order to deliver effective fire. His personal example of fearless leadership enabled his conglomerate group of men to reduce the intensity of the hostile fire, thus permitting them as well as other friendly troops to escape the trap which the enemy had set for them. The gallantry and heroic devotion to duty demonstrated by Captain Lively reflects great credit upon himself and upholds the highest traditions of the Military Service of the United States.