The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant David C. Marks (MCSN: 2044624), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Platoon Sergeant with Company B, First Battalion, Fifth Marines, FIRST Marine Division (Rein.), FMF, in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On the afternoon of 9 June 1969, Company B was engaged in operations in Quang Nam Province when its point squad was pinned down by intense hostile fire from an estimated North Vietnamese Army battalion well entrenched in a bunker complex three miles west of the An Hoa Combat Base. Observing two wounded Marines lying in a dangerously exposed area, Sergeant Marks directed his men to deliver a heavy volume of fire against the hostile emplacement, then boldly moved across the fire-swept terrain on two separate occasions to reach his injured comrades and carry them to relative safety. He fearlessly led several assaults against the enemy emplacements, personally destroying four bunkers and killing eight North Vietnamese soldiers. When informed that a helicopter attempting the medical evacuation of the wounded was forced to land when damaged by enemy fire, Sergeant Marks expeditiously led his men to the area and marked the hostile positions with smoke grenades for supporting helicopter gunships. Realizing that the landing zone was too hazardous to risk extraction efforts by a second helicopter, he quickly deployed his men to secure another zone. Ignoring the hostile rounds impacting nearby, he assisted in carrying two wounded Marines across 100 meters of open rice paddies to the landing zone where they were quickly embarked and evacuated from the area. His superb leadership inspired all who observed him and was instrumental in accounting for seventy-five North Vietnamese soldiers killed and numerous enemy weapons captured. By his courage, daring initiative, and unwavering devotion to duty at great personal risk, Sergeant Marks upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.