The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Major (Corps of Engineers) Charles A. Fry, Jr. (ASN: 0-1101833), United States Army, for gallantry in action while serving as Commanding Officer, 2d Engineer Combat Battalion, 2d Infantry Division, in action against an armed enemy from 1 through 3 September 1950, in the vicinity of Songnae-Ri, Korea, in the Naktong River Line. On 1 September 1950, numerically superior enemy forces supported by tanks, anti-tank guns, and mortars, had broken through the lines of an Infantry Regimental Combat Team and pushed to the vicinity of Songnae-Ri, where the 2d Engineer Combat Battalion was in a defensive position. This officer personally supervised the defensive action of the Engineer troops in defending the sector. He successfully led his Engineer troops, untrained in the role of Infantry, in repeated assaults through continuous rain over muddy, treacherous, mountainous terrain against the fanatical, numerically superior enemy forces. The personnel of the battalion, aware of their unusual combat role, required and received a superior standard of leadership, grim determination, and bravery, conspicuously aided in repulsing the enemy’s attack, and in regaining lost ground, consolidating the division front, and in securing the Division Main Supply Route. His outstanding leadership on this occasion is in keeping with the highest standards and traditions of the military service.