Chief Warrant Officer W2 William I. Silverstein, United States Army, 170th Assault Helicopter Company, 52d Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade: For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam: Chief Warrant Officer Silverstein distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 21 and 22 March 1967 while piloting a helicopter during a battle in Kontum Province. As the action opened Mister Silverstein volunteered to fly through intense hostile machine gun fire and the trajectory of enemy mortars and friendly artillery to the battle area to deliver the S-3 to the battalion command group. When one company reported that all its leaders had been either killed or wounded, he again volunteered to insert necessary personnel although the unit was in heavy contact and the only possible landing zone was in thick jungle behind North Vietnamese Army positions. After successfully landing seven men, he flew to a fire base, returned with ammunition and other vital supplies and, while under heavy enemy fire, lowered them through the dense foliage to the desperate ground troops. As night fell, an ambulance helicopter was shot down as it attempted to extract a wounded man and Mister Silverstein promptly inserted medical aidmen to care for the soldier. Learning that a raging brush fire had isolated the medics from other friendly elements, he returned through darkness and the communists’ fusillade to evacuate them. Despite choking smoke and leaping flames he twice hovered over a bomb crater until all the medics were extracted. As the night progressed, he remained aloft to act as an aerial radio relay for the ground units, despite the fact that his ship was constantly revealed to hostile gunners by flares and illumination rounds. Responding to a call from a unit with fifteen wounded, he was driven away on his initial approach by the tremendous concentration of enemy fire, yet he returned to insert the battalion surgeon and evacuate two of the injured soldiers. He then shuttled back and forth through towering trees, darkness, and the North Vietnamese barrage to guide other ships into the landing zone. As the casualties were being evacuated, he spotted a hostile mortar position which was shelling the Americans and directed a gunship attack which destroyed it. Chief Warrant Officer Silverstein’s 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.