AWARD OF THE DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS
 
WALSH, DONALD W.  W3158678
 
24 MARCH 1968
 
REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM
 
For heroism while participating in aerial flight:  On this date, Warrant Officer Walsh was piloting a battalion commander on a mission to direct the movements of his unit, where was sweeping through an area of reported Viet Cong activity.  While moving through a densely jungled area, the friendly troops became heavily engaged with a battalion-sized force of Viet Cong.  As the action intensified, the battalion commander decided to take command of the battle from the ground and had Warrant Officer Walsh land in a small clearing near the battle site.  As his aircraft descended, it received intensive hostile weapons fire.  He maneuvered the craft so skillfully, however, that he was able to let the battalion commander out without sustaining any hits.  After taking off again, he noticed several wounded soldiers lying in the area of heaviest contact.  He immediately volunteered to land and evacuate the men to a hospital.  With complete disregard for his personal safety, he braved a hail of automatic weapons fire aimed directly at his aircraft as he skillfully maneuvered his ship through the treetops and evacuated the most seriously wounded man.  After flying him to a hospital, he returned to the battle area with a passenger as assistant gunner and began engaging insurgent machinegun positions he had previously spotted.  While making a low level firing pass, his aircraft took several hits from hostile ground fire, wounding him and his passenger, damaging the ship and setting off a red smoke grenade in the cockpit.  He nevertheless managed calmly an skillfully to fly the disabled ship to a landing zone 100 meters away.  After landing, he and his passenger were evacuated.  His courage and superb flying skill enabled him to save the lives of a seriously wounded infantryman, his passenger, and contributed significantly to the rout of a numerically superior Viet Cong force.  Warrant Officer Walsh’s actions are in keeping  with the finest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, and the 1st Infantry Division and the United States Army.
 
By direction of the President, under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved 2 July 1926