The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Walter Jackson Riley, United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as Squad Leader of the Second Squad, Second Platoon, Company I, Third Battalion, Ninth Marines, during operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On 30 March 1967 while conducting a search and destroy mission in the vicinity of the Demilitarized Zone to the southwest of Con Thien in Operation PRAIRIE III, the India Company command element, protected by two squads, was attacked by a numerically superior North Vietnamese Army force. Corporal Riley, while under intense mortar fire, deployed his squad on the forward slope of Hill 70 directing fire into the enemy ranks, inflicting heavy casualties. When the NVA deployed a heavy wheel-mounted machine gun against the beleaguered Marines, he gathered the LAAWs carried by his men and silenced the three guns targeting their position. The enemy, persisting in their attack, brought additional guns to bear. Corporal Riley again silenced their fire, expending the sixty M-79 40-mm. rounds he personally carried into the field. Despite heavy losses, the enemy concealed by the chest-high elephant grass, succeeded in infiltrating the Marine perimeter. Corporal Riley’s men killed NVA in all directions before being driven back to the reverse slope of the hill. Corporal Riley was ordered to retake the crest of Hill 70 to relieve pressure on the command post and to recover casualties. He led his men in a ferocious assault, accomplishing his mission, sadly with the loss of four of his men. Corporal Riley, carrying a Marine on his back, moved his remaining men into the final defensive position. He continued to kill the enemy with his M-14 rifle, thus protecting the remnants of the command element and the wounded until linkup with relieving units. Corporal Riley was medically evacuated the next morning due to three separate wounds he received during the battle of what would be called “Getlin’s Corner.” As a result of his leadership, personal example, and courage, India Company was able to hold their position, recover their dead, and evacuate their wounded while inflicting heavy losses on the North Vietnamese Army. Corporal Riley upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.