United States Army
The President of the United States of America authorized by Act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of the Congress the Medal of Honor to
Sergeant Richard A. Penry
United States Army
for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sergeant Richard A. Penry, Company C. 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry, 199th Infantry Brigade, distinguished himself on January 31, 1970 while serving as a rifleman during a night ambush mission Binh Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam. As the platoon was preparing the ambush position, it suddenly came under an intense enemy attacked from mortar, rocket and automatic weapons fire which seriously wounded the company commander and most of the platoon members, leaving small isolated groups of wounded men throughout the area. Sergeant Penry, seeing the extreme seriousness of the situation, worked his way through the deadly enemy fire to the company command post, where he administered first aid to the wounded company commander and other personnel. He then
moved the command post to a position which provided greater protection and visual communication and control of other platoon elements. Realizing the company radio was damaged and recognizing the urgent necessity to reestablished communications with the battalion headquarters he ran outside the defensive perimeter through a fusillade or hostile fire to retrieve a radio. Finding it inoperable, Sergeant Penry returned through heavy fire to retrieve two more radios. Turning his attention to the defense of the area, he crawled to the edge of the perimeter retrieved needed ammunition and weapons and resupplied the wounded men. During a determined assault by over thirty enemy soldiers, Sergeant Penry occupied the most vulnerable forward position placing heavy, accurate fire
on the attacking enemy and exposing himself several times to throw hand grenades into the advancing enemy troops. He succeeded virtually single-handedly in stopping the attack. Learning that none of the radios were operable, Sergeant Penry again crawled outside the defensive perimeter, retrieved a fourth radio and established communications with higher headquarters. Sergeant Penry then continued to administer first aid to the wounded and repositioned them to better repel further enemy attacks. Despite continuous and deadly sniper fire, he again left the defensive perimeter, moved to within a few feet of enemy positions, located five isolated soldiers, and led them to safety. When evacuation helicopters approached, Sergeant Penry voluntarily left the perimeter, set up a guiding beacon, established the priorities for evacuation and successively carried eighteen wounded men to a(n) extraction site. After all wounded personnel had been evacuated, Sergeant Penry joined another platoon and assisted in the pursuit of the enemy, Sergeant Penry conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary heroism at the risk of his own life are in keeping with the highest tradition of the military service and reflects great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army. — Richard Nixon
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