The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Lance Corporal Willard Timothy Moore (MCSN: 2016691), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving with Battery A, First Battalion, Eleventh Marines, in connection with combat operations against insurgent communist (Viet Cong) forces in the Republic of Vietnam. In the pre-dawn hours of 18 April 1966, the Battery position was attacked from three sides simultaneously. The force of about fifty Viet Cong regulars moved quickly under cover of darkness in a determined attack against battery defensive positions, one of which was manned by Lance Corporal Moore and three comrades. Almost immediately, the three Marines fighting alongside him were wounded and unable to help in the defense. Alone in the bunker which stood between the attacking enemy and the vital battery ammunition dump, Lance Corporal Moore faced overwhelming odds as his position was assaulted repeatedly. Dodging incoming automatic weapons fire and grenades by leaping from one side of the bunker to the other, he single-handedly held his position for twenty hazardous minutes until reinforcements arrived. Repeatedly exposing himself to the hostile fire and resisting with every means at his disposal, Lance Corporal Moore effectively thwarted the Viet Cong attempt to reach the ammunition dump. In preventing his position from being overrun, he undoubtedly saved the lives of his wounded comrades and averted certain destruction of the Battery’s store of ammunition. By his extraordinary courage in the face of extreme danger, resolute fighting spirit and unfaltering dedication to duty throughout, Lance Corporal Moore upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.