The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Gunnery Sergeant Richard S. Yale (MCSN: 1168486), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of Detachment One, Marine Support Squadron Three Marine Aircraft Group Eighteen (MAG-18), FIRST Marine Aircraft Wing, in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. In the pre-dawn hours of 23 February 1969, the air support radar team’s position on Hill 220 near DaNang came under intense rocket–propelled grenade and automatic weapons fire from a North Vietnamese Army sapper unit which had penetrated the perimeter defenses and was attacking the operations bunker. Reacting instantly, Gunnery Sergeant Yale fearlessly maneuvered five hundred meters through a heavy volume of hostile fire to join the unit’s reaction force. During three assaults against the enemy’s hilltop position, he fearlessly exposed himself to the intense fire as he assisted the casualties and offered words of encouragement to his comrades. When the heavy volume of fire forced the reaction force to move to an adjacent place of high ground, Gunnery Sergeant Yale, realizing that wounded Marines were still in the vicinity of the operations bunker, quickly organized a seven-man squad which moved into the hazardous area under the cover of helicopter gunship strikes. Completely disregarding his own safety, he led the Marines in seizing the hilltop, thereby allowing the medical evacuation of the wounded. By his courage, aggressive fighting spirit, and steadfast devotion to duty at great personal risk, Gunnery Sergeant Yale inspired all who observed him and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.