Walter F. Bailey

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Walter F. Bailey, Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving as Weapons Platoon Sergeant with Company E, Second Battalion, Fifth Marines, FIRST Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On the night of 21 March 1970, Sergeant Bailey’s unit was tasked with the security of Liberty Bridge in Quang Nam Province. While on watch, he observed a bamboo raft, laden with high explosives, floating downstream toward the bridge. Immediately alerting his fellow Marines, he directed them in delivering a heavy volume of fire at the floating object in an attempt to detonate the explosives before the raft reached the bridge. However, the Marines’ fire failed to detonate the raft’s cargo and it subsequently lodged among the bridge’s pilings. Surveying the situation, Sergeant Bailey discovered that the raft contained a 250-pound bomb and numerous additional explosives, as well as a large number of connecting wires and cables which trailed off into the water. He then dived into the water and, with two other Marines, struggled for fifteen minutes to free it from the bridge’s supports and push it back into the current. As it floated downstream, he observed the raft lodge on a sandbar approximately twenty-five meters away. Sergeant Bailey quickly swam to the sandbar, placed a small explosive charge around the bomb, shoved the raft back into the river current, and then detonated the charge. When the charge failed to detonate the bomb, he continued to follow the raft downstream until it again lodged on a sandbar, where he immediately secured it in place and subsequently directed an explosive ordnance team to the site to destroy the bomb. By his selfless courage, bold initiative, and steadfast devotion to duty in the face of great personal danger, Sergeant Bailey prevented probable serious damage to a vital bridge and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.