MAJOR DENNY R. VAUGHAN was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in recognition of his extraordinary heroism in Vietnam on 18 April 1968 in an air rescue mission west of Kontum. During a low-level aerial reconnaissance, a scout aircraft was struck by anti aircraft fire and crashed in the midst of a reinforced North Vietnamese Army battalion. When it was reported that two crew members had survived the crash, the then Captain Vaughan immediately volunteered to lead a twenty-man force in an attempt to extract them. On the aproach to the landing zone the lead aircraft began receiving intense fire from machine gun positions surrounding the pickup site, and the flight commander decided to abort the mission. Captain Vaughan, though fully aware of the enemy’s strength, persuaded the flight commander to remain at a twenty-foot hover while he and his men jumped to the ground. Ignoring an injury to his ankle, he rapidly deployed his platoon and began maneuvering it toward the downed ship. After moving a short distance, it received heavy enemy automatic weapons fire. Captain Vaughan requested and adjusted air strikes around his platoon’s position. The bombardment stopped the attackers’ fire and he continued to lead his men toward the injured crew members. The North Vietnamese launched a furious ground assault on his platoon. Captain Vaughan fearlessly exposed himself to the withering hail of fire to organize and direct his troops’ defenses. As the attack was driven back, he once again called air strikes on the enemy, enabling him and his men to return to the landing zone with the downed aircraft crew for extraction.

Maj. Vaughan had been a member of the L.O.V. since 1974 and resided in Ohio.