The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Lance Corporal Alton Buckley (MCSN: 2260763), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Machine Gunner with Company E, Second Battalion, Ninth Marines, THIRD Marine Division (Rein.), FMF, in connection with operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On 2 February 1968, Company E was advancing to seize a hill in Quang Tri Province overlooking National Route Nine to prevent the enemy from interdicting the road. Suddenly, Lance Corporal Buckley’s platoon came under heavy fire from mutually supporting fortified North Vietnamese Army positions on the hill, temporarily pinning down the platoon and causing several casualties. Observing a Marine thirty meters from his position wounded by an enemy white phosphorus round that had ignited his packboard containing four 60-mm. mortar rounds, Lance Corporal Buckley unhesitatingly ran across the fire-swept terrain to the side of his endangered comrade. Completely disregarding his own safety, he calmed the Marine, pulled the flaming mortar rounds from his back and threw them into a depression nearby where they exploded within seconds. Although wounded in the face by mortar fragments, he disregarded his own injuries as he assisted the wounded man to a covered position. By his courage, bold initiative and selfless devotion to duty at great personal risk, Lance Corporal Buckley undoubtedly saved the life of a fellow Marine and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.