Donald D. Cooper

The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Donald D. Cooper (RA39292145), Private First Class, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy of the United Nations while serving with Company B, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division. Private First Class Cooper distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action against enemy aggressor forces in the vicinity of Taeu-san, Korea, on 27 July 1951. On that date, Company B was assigned the mission of attacking and securing well-fortified hill positions from a numerically superior hostile force. As Private Cooper’s squad advanced toward the objective, it was halted by a heavy volume of fire from a strong enemy position. Realizing that his comrades faced annihilation unless the enemy bunker was destroyed, Private Cooper voluntarily left his position of cover and single-handedly assaulted it. Despite the fact that the position was so heavily fortified that mortar and artillery fire had failed to neutralize it, Private Cooper moved across the fire-swept terrain armed only with his rifle and grenades and succeeded in killing the occupants of the emplacement. Private Cooper then fearlessly remained in his exposed position on the hillside and provided deadly accurate covering fire for his comrades who were attempting to consolidate their untenable positions. Inflicting numerous casualties among the enemy troops, he continued to pour a devastating volume of fire into the hostile positions until he was hit and mortally wounded by a burst, of fire from an enemy machine-gun.
Headquarters, Eighth U.S. Army, Korea: General Orders No. 949 (November 28, 1951)