The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Lance Corporal Freddie L. Murray (MCSN: 2065527), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as Scout Team Leader with Company A, Third Reconnaissance Battalion, THIRD Marine Division (Rein.), FMF, in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam on 12 July 1965. As a point of a reconnaissance patrol, Lance Corporal Murray and another Marine were moving along the route when the patrol became engaged with an estimated fifty to one hundred Viet Cong firing machine guns and automatic weapons from concealed positions. Immediately deploying to the side of the road, he began firing and killed or wounded two Viet Cong. As the point moved back, they found the advance party deployed in an open field being swept by a storm of fire. Upon observing two seriously wounded Marines in the field, Lance Corporal Murray unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his own personal safety moved into the fire-swept field to aid the casualties. After bandaging one of the men’s wounds, he laid down covering fire for the men to withdraw. Hearing a shout that the Company Commander had been shot and killed trying to reach the other wounded Marine, Lance Corporal Murray dashed to his side, and with the assistance of another Marines, recovered the body and moved it through a hail of fire to cover. Returning to the open field, he courageously assisted in recovering the other injured Marine. Continuously exposing himself to fire, Lance Corporal Murray escorted the party carrying the dead and wounded to the landing zone which had been established for the extraction of the patrol. By his daring actions and loyal devotion to duty in the face of personal risk, Lance Corporal Murray upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.