During an attack by a North Vietnamese Army sapper company on his unit’s firing position at Khe Gio Bridge in the Republic of Vietnam on 12 March 1970, Sgt. Mitchell W. Stout of Battery C, 1st Battalion, 44th Artillery, U.S. Army, was in a bunker with members of a searchlight crew when heavy enemy mortar fire and a ground attack struck the position. After the mortar attack lessened, an enemy grenade landed in the bunker. Sgt. Stout ran to the grenade, picked it up, and started out of the bunker. As he reached the door, it exploded. By holding it close to his body and shielding its blast, he protected the other soldiers in the bunker from further injury or death.