Raymond J. Enners, United States Army:  For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam:  First Lieutenant Enners distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous action on 18 September 1968 while serving as a platoon leader during a combat sweep near the village of Ha Thanh.  While moving across a small valley, his platoon was ambushed by a reinforced North Vietnamese Army squad firing machine guns, automatic weapons and small arms from camouflaged positions on a hillside.  A squad leader was severely wounded and fell within twenty meters of the communists.  Helplessly trapped by raking fire from the enemy gunners, the badly bleeding squad leader called for help, but the deadly hostile fire kept anyone from reaching him.  Lieutenant Enners, hearing his cries, began moving forward to rescue him.  From his position one hundred meters back, he crawled forward through the rice paddies and leaped across the intervening dikes, dodging through continuous bursts of enemy fire until he reached his forward squad trapped behind a dike twenty meters from the fallen squad leader.  With the aid of one of the other squad leaders, he dispersed his men and signaled for covering fire.  He and the squad leader then jumped over the dike and ran forward through the blistering fire to within ten meters of the wounded man, but were forced to turn back when the North Vietnamese began throwing grenades.  Calling for a second burst of cover fire, the two men again raced across the bullet-ridden paddies, only to be halted again by the shrapnel of exploding grenades.  Returning to the scant cover of the dike, Lieutenant Enners reorganized his men, maneuvering one squad twenty meters to the right of the enemy emplacements and directing the remainder of the platoon to areas from which they could lay down the most effective cross fire.  Signaling a third time for his men to open up on the aggressors, he and the squad leader vaulted the dike and again attempted to reach the wounded man.  Braving the rounds scorching the air around them, they raced to the injured man’s position and took cover behind the dike.  After applying first aid to the man’s wounds while the squad leader fired at the North Vietnamese, Lieutenant Enners picked up the injured man and again disregarded the risk to his own life to carry him back across the battlefield to the care of medical aidmen.  Moving to the squad on the right flank, he then led an attack on the communists. Charging through a hail of fire, he moved to within fifteen meters of the enemy before he was fatally wounded by hostile machine gun fire. First Lieutenant Enners’ extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty, at the cost of his life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

Enners was born on 5 Nov 1945 in Rockville Centre, NY and graduated from USMA at West Point, NY in 1967 and is buried in their cemetery. His membership in the Legion of Valor is sponsored by Jerry Cecil, DSC and Richard Enners, his brother and a USMA 1971 graduate. He has written a book about Ray titled “HEART OF GRAY” which will be published this fall by Acclaim Press.