The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Staff Sergeant Donald Daniel Holler (MCSN: 1845128), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Platoon Sergeant with Company E, Second Battalion, Ninth Marines, THIRD Marine Division 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, Staff Sergeant Holler’s platoon came under heavy fire from mutually supporting fortified North Vietnamese Army positions on the hill, seriously wounding the platoon commander. Immediately assuming command, Staff Sergeant Holler reorganized the platoon and established a well integrated defensive perimeter. Repeatedly exposing himself to hostile fire, he moved from one man to another to encourage his men and ensure that maximum fire was being delivered against the enemy and, on two occasions, maneuvered through heavy hostile fire to carry two of his wounded comrades to safety. Although wounded twice by enemy fire, he refused medical attention for himself in order to maneuver his men out of the fire-swept area. The last to leave the hazardous area, Staff Sergeant Holler directed effective covering fire which enabled his men to return to the company’s defensive perimeter. On the evening of 4 February while his unit was occupying a defensive perimeter on Hill 37, three members of a listening post were wounded by North Vietnamese small arms fire and returned to the company perimeter to report that the fourth member of their group was missing. Quickly organizing a five-man rescue team, Staff Sergeant Holler led them in an attempt to recover the missing Marine. Thwarted by intense hostile fire on three attempts to reach the listening post and wounded on the third attempt by an enemy round that paralyzed his left arm, he realized that the missing man had been killed and requested supporting fire against the enemy force as he returned to the unit’s perimeter. By his courage, bold initiative and selfless devotion to duty at great personal risk, Staff Sergeant Holler upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.