The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918 (amended by act of July 25, 1963), takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Specialist Fourth Class Richard Leo Hazel (ASN: US-55866158), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam, while serving with Company A, 3d Battalion, 22d Infantry, 3d Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. Specialist Fourth Class Hazel distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 21 March 1967 while serving as a fire direction computer during an assault by a Viet Cong regiment in Tay Ninh Province. During the early morning hours, the hostile regiment launched a massive infantry, mortar, and rocket assault on the entire friendly defense perimeter. The spearhead of the assault was directed at the infantry positions in front of the bunker occupied by Specialist Hazel. When he saw that friendly mortar emplacements had been destroyed and defensive positions in his sector were being overrun, he left the security of his bunker while receiving intense enemy fire to place grenade fire on the assaulting waves of insurgents. At one point he silenced an enemy recoilless rifle position that had destroyed numerous bunkers and was hitting at large areas inside his unit’s perimeter. With complete disregard for his own safety, he moved throughout the area of enemy penetration while aiding the wounded and moving them for treatment and evacuation. When other sectors were overrun by repeated Viet Cong assaults, Specialist Hazel, already exhausted from two hours of heated battle, led an assault with men from assorted units in a vicious fight to reclaim the overrun positions. Specialist Hazel and the others managed to hold the reclaimed areas, until reinforcements arrived four hours later, by fighting insurgents outside and inside the perimeter. Specialist Fourth Class Hazel’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.