The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918 (amended by an act of July 25, 1963), takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Captain (Armor) Donald Wilt Shive, Jr. (ASN: OF-101711), United States Army, for gallantry In action in the Republic of Vietnam on 4 February 1968. Captain Shive distinguished himself while serving as the Commanding Officer of Company A, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, during a combat operation in the village of Dien Sanh, Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam. At approximately 1630 hours, Company A was ordered to advance into the village to relieve some of the pressure from another company of this battalion which was taking heavy casualties as a result of a decisive engagement with an estimated reinforced battalion-size unit of the North Vietnamese Army which occupied the village. Company A, the third platoon and Company Headquarters leading, moved east into the edge of the village on the left flank of the embattled company. The Company Headquarters and the entire third platoon were taken under an intense volume of hostile machine gun and small arms fire from the right front as the point squad had moved approximately one-hundred and fifty meters into the village. As this was the first time the company had been under fire nearly the entire third platoon and headquarters group took cover, and in effect were momentarily pinned down under the devastating hail of enemy fire. Captain Shive, seeing the lack of action and with utter disregard for the hostile rounds which were impacting on the ground surrounding his location, openly exposed himself to direct enemy fire as he maneuvered from man to man encouraging their efforts to lay down an effective base of fire upon the insurgent positions. At this time the orders were received to pull all companies out of the village so that artillery and gunships could be brought to bear against the well dug-in and numerically superior enemy. Captain Shive directed the Company Headquarters to remain covered while he advanced forward to extract the third platoon as communications with the third platoon leader were not available. The enemy fire had not subsided and several third platoon troopers were wounded. Captain Shive, continually exposed himself to the murderous hail of enemy fire, moved about to insure that the third platoon conducted an orderly withdrawal. Finally, Captain Shive physically contacted the third platoon leader and asked him if all of his unit was accounted for and withdrawn. The platoon leader stated that his radio-telephone operator was missing and believed dead. In addition to the heavy volume of hostile fire which now made upright movement impossible, aerial rocket artillery helicopters, controlled by another company, began to fire into the area where the mission radio-telephone operator was last seen. Captain Shive, at this time, directed the headquarters group, now the most forward unit of the company, to lay down a base of fire for his cover. Then, despite the enemy and friendly fire, he crawled some thirty meters forward by himself, found the missing radio-telephone operator, and began dragging him to the rear. The forward artillery observer and several Headquarters personnel, seeing that Captain Shive was having trouble with the man, moved forward and helped Captain Shive move the mortally wounded trooper to the rear. As the enemy fire was still intense and had not slackened, Captain Shive ordered the headquarters group to pick up the radio-telephone operator and move out while he and two other radio-telephone operators covered their withdrawal from the village with M-16 fire. Only after he was positive that all personnel were safely out of the village did Captain Shive leave. Captain Shive’s extraordinary heroism and profound concern for his men while engaged in close combat against a numerically superior enemy force were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.