The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Hospital Corpsman Third Class James Layton French (NSN: 6817603), United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Corpsman attached to Headquarters and Service Company, Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, FIRST Marine Division, in action against insurgent communist (Viet Cong) forces in the Republic of Vietnam. On 4 March 1966, during Operation UTAH, Hospital Corpsman French was assigned to help organize an aid station site near Chau Nhai, Quang Ngai Province, to receive casualties resulting from a vicious battle with a regimental-sized Viet Cong force. For more than twelve hours, while repeatedly subjected to deadly hostile sniper and mortar fire, he worked tirelessly and with superior professional competence to administer first aid and give comfort to the steady flow of wounded Marines. Further exposing himself to enemy fire, he personally carried many patients to helicopter evacuation zones, and on one hazardous trip was painfully wounded in the knee by fragments from an exploding Viet Cong mortar round. Stalwartly refusing treatment, he continued to load the evacuees and gave first aid to new casualties. He boarded a helicopter late that night to provide special care for a severely wounded Marine. Realizing that the battalion was in dire need of medical supplies, he returned to the aid station on the next available flight with the necessary medicines. Still ignoring his own suffering, he remained with his unit and administered aid until he was finally evacuated with the last of the casualties. By his uncommon concern for the welfare of others at his own expense, coupled with exceptional courage and unfaltering dedication to duty, Hospital Corpsman French upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.