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 First Lieutenant (Infantry) Michael J. Williams (ASN: OF-111319), 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, 506th Infantry, 3d Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile). First Lieutenant Williams distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 25 July 1968 as a platoon leader during combat operations near Cu Chi. Lieutenant Williams’ company was met by fierce small arms and machine gun fire as it was inserted by helicopter into an enemy-held area. Crossing seventy-five meters of bullet-swept rice paddy, he reached a hedgerow in which the majority of the hostile positions were concealed. He quickly silenced one machine gun with a hand grenade, and then crawled through the bushes, methodically destroying the communists’ strongholds and killing the occupants. Despite receiving numerous fragmentation wounds in his legs from an enemy hand grenade, he stood up and charged a machine gun position which had his comrades pinned down. Completely exposing himself to the hostile fusillade, he tossed a grenade into the bunker’s opening and used the fortification itself as a shield from the blast. After insuring that the machine gun had been rendered useless, he crawled into the open rice paddy and began moving back to his men, but was shot through both legs by the communists and again received fragmentation wounds in his legs from an enemy hand grenade. Realizing that he would be killed if he moved, Lieutenant Williams played dead for eight hours not more than twenty feet from the hostile positions. When darkness came he dragged himself more than three hundred meters back to his unit’s night location. First Lieutenant Williams’ 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.