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 Captain (Infantry) John Phillips Lawton (ASN: 0-5318366), 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, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 327th Infantry, 1st Brigade, 101st Air Cavalry Division. Captain Lawton distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 8 October 1967 as the commander of an infantry company during a mission near Chu Lai. He received word that his second platoon had been heavily attacked in an open rice field by an estimated North Vietnamese Army company firing automatic weapons and mortars and had suffered many casualties. He maneuvered another of his platoons to a position from which he could observe the battle and, after a quick estimate of the situation, called for a relief force from a sister company. Not waiting for its arrival, he personally led one squad of his force toward the beleaguered platoon while the remaining squads set up a base of fire to cover the movement. Upon reaching a woodline flanking the rice field, Captain Lawton could see that the trapped platoon’s casualties were exposed to an extremely intense cross fire from three enemy machine guns and realized that they had to be recovered immediately. Despite the withering fire and exploding mortar rounds he charged across fifty meters of open rice paddy. As he ran toward the injured men, he received multiple wounds in the leg, arm and chest from a hail of enemy machine gun bullets. Disregarding his severe wounds, he continued to crawl to the casualties, only to discover that they were all either dead or so seriously wounded that they couldn’t be moved easily. For a full forty-five minutes he single handedly held the attackers at bay and prevented them from searching the dead or capturing the wounded. He than began directing his men in an attempt to rescue as many of the surviving casualties as possible. He placed suppressive fire on the insurgents to cover his troops’ maneuver until he ran out of ammunition and his position was overrun. Captain Lawton, with a burst of reserve energy, lunged forward to grab a weapon from on the enemy, but was wounded for the fourth time and left for dead. Through his courageous actions he had delayed the enemy force to such an extent that when the relief force arrived moments later the attackers were caught in the open and were quickly routed, suffering heavy casualties. Captain Lawton’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.