The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant Walter Maurice Kegley (MCSN: 2221435), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Senior Advisor/Marine Squad Leader with Combined Action Company 2-3, III Marine Amphibious Force, in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On 6 August 1968, Sergeant Kegley led an eight-man reaction force assigned to support a convoy from the Ninth Engineer Battalion which had come under a heavy volume of automatic weapons fire from an estimated hostile force of two platoons near Dien Ban in Quang Nam Province. Arriving at the designated location, he skillfully maneuvered his unit through the hazardous area to the lead vehicle and observed two casualties pinned down by the intense fire. Directing one of his men to render first aid to the wounded Marines, he deployed the remainder of his force into a position to provide effective covering fire until the casualties were removed to a place of relative safety. Hearing a call from another injured Marine, Sergeant Kegley fearlessly crawled across the fire-swept terrain and commenced treating the injured man. Observing a Revolutionary Development Team member fall wounded in a more forward area, he resolutely moved to the man’s side and, observing that the Vietnamese had succumbed to his injury, returned to the Marine and skillfully completed treatment of the casualty’s wounds before carrying him to a covered area. Informed that one man was missing, Sergeant Kegley quickly organized a detail from his reaction force and, with complete disregard for his own safety, led them back through the continuing enemy fire to the head of the convoy. Realizing that a marked increase in the hostile fire made a search impossible without incurring extensive casualties, he deployed his men into effective fighting positions and, directing their accurate fire, enabled the small group to repulse the hostile advance until a second reaction unit arrived and the missing Marine was located. Observing several enemy soldiers running into a nearby building, Sergeant Kegley unhesitatingly moved into a dangerously exposed area and calmly fired a light anti-tank assault weapon into the structure, effectively silencing the fire from that location. His bold initiative and aggressive fighting spirit inspired all who observed him and were instrumental in saving the lives of several Marines. By his exceptional courage, decisive leadership and unfaltering devotion to duty at great personal risk, Sergeant Kegley upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.