The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Private First Class William Edward Taylor (MCSN: 2372470), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Machine Gun Ammunition Man with Company F, Second Battalion, Ninth Marines, THIRD Marine Division (Rein.), FMF, in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On 30 November 1967 during Operation KENTUCKY, Private First Class Taylor’s battalion was participating in a search and destroy operation against an estimated battalion-size North Vietnamese Army unit entrenched in an area north of Con Thien. As his company advanced to within fifteen meters of a tree line, it suddenly came under heavy mortar, automatic weapons and small arms fire. In the initial moments of the attack, the company’s leading elements, including the commanding officer, were temporarily pinned down in an exposed rice paddy. Disregarding his own safety, Private First Class Taylor unhesitatingly exposed himself to the hostile fire as he moved from his position near the rear of the company to the area of heaviest fighting and commenced to direct accurate fire and throw hand grenades into the tree line. His courageous actions were instrumental in enabling the pinned-down Marines to maneuver from their precarious positions and reach the hastily formed defensive perimeter. In an attempt to silence the hostile fire in the area, Private First Class Taylor boldly accompanied two other Marines as they crawled across ten meters of fire-swept terrain toward the enemy-infested tree line, throwing hand grenades and directing rifle fire at the enemy. Observing a North Vietnamese soldier preparing to fire at one of his companions, he immediately killed the enemy soldier with accurate rifle fire. Continuing to advance into the hazardous tree line, Private First Class Taylor overran six enemy bunkers, routing the enemy from their positions and capturing a machine gun, numerous small arms and ammunition and various equipment. In large measure due to his aggressive and courageous actions, his company was able to consolidate its position and secure the objective, sustaining only a minimum number of friendly casualties while accounting for twenty confirmed and ten probable enemy killed. By his extraordinary courage, bold initiative and selfless devotion to duty at great personal risk, Private First Class Taylor upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.