CAPTAIN DENNIS C. TOMCIK, for his extraordinary heroism on 13 October 1968 as a platoon leader during an aerial combat assault near the village of Trum Doung in Kien Hoa Province. As Lieutenant Tomcik’s unit landed, it came under intense automatic weapons fire from an estimated company of Viet Cong occupying well fortified positions. The platoon was split into two parts and pinned down by the barrage. Fearlessly moving ahead of his element, Lieutenant Tomcik assaulted an enemy bunker and killed three communists with bursts from his rifle. When six of his men moved up to join him and began providing covering fire, he charged a second stronghold and threw a grenade into its gunport, killing two Viet Cong and capturing a third. He and his comrades were then subjected to heavy fire from their flank. Dodging through the bursts of enemy fire, Lieutenant Tomcik ran to his element which was still pinned under the hostile fussilade, secured a machine gun and ammunition, then returned to his forward position to counter the heavy flanking fire. After directing gunship strikes within twenty-five meters of his location which killed eight of the enemy, he led his small band in assaults on six more bunkers, killing seventeen Viet Cong.

Mr. Tomcik resides in Ohio and joined the L.O.V. in 1971.

View Mr. Tomcik’s Oak Leaf Cluster citation.