The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Major David C. Watkins (MCSN: 0-76555), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving with Marine Light Helicopter Squadron ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVEN (HML-167), Marine Aircraft Group Sixteen, FIRST Marine Aircraft Wing, in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. Late on the night of 5 January 1969, Major Watkins launched as Aircraft Commander of an armed UH-1E helicopter escorting a CH-46 transport helicopter assigned the medical evacuation of five casualties from a Marine unit in Quang Nam Province. When the transport helicopter was severely damaged by intense hostile automatic weapons fire and was forced to abort its mission without embarking the injured Marines, he escorted the crippled aircraft back to An Hoa. Informed that the Marines had sustained additional casualties, four of whom would possibly not survive unless immediately evacuated, Major Watkins resolutely decided to attempt the evacuation with his gunship. Landing at An Hoa, he removed the rocket pods and all excess equipment except his aircraft’s two machine guns and quickly departed for the beleaguered Marines’ position. Undaunted by total darkness, deteriorating weather conditions, and the threat of a heavy volume of hostile fire, Major Watkins extinguished all lights on his helicopter and descended to ground level as he approached the landing zone, guided only by a single flashing strobe light. Unable to see the ground, he relied upon the information relayed by his crew as he landed his aircraft with one side on a rice paddy dike and the other suspended in the air, approximately three feet from the ground. Skillfully maintaining his helicopter in a precarious semi-hover, he resolutely remained in his dangerously exposed position until the four critically wounded Marines were embarked and then lifted out of the hazardous area. Despite his gunship’s low fuel state, extremely adverse weather conditions, and the hazards of flying low over enemy controlled terrain, he boldly elected to proceed to the hospital at DaNang and succeeded in safely arriving at the medical facility and disembarking his patients. By his courage, superior airmanship and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of great personal danger, Major Watkins was instrumental in saving the lives of his fellow Marines and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.