On January 31, 1970, while serving as a rifleman with Company C, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry, 199th Infantry Brigade, in Binh Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam, Sergeant Richard A. Penry distinguished himself during a night ambush mission when his platoon came under intense enemy mortar, rocket, and automatic weapons fire that seriously wounded the company commander and most of the platoon. He fought his way through enemy fire to the command post, administered first aid, moved the post to a more protected position, and, after finding the company radio damaged, repeatedly went outside the defensive perimeter through heavy fire to retrieve radios until he restored communications with battalion headquarters. He then gathered ammunition and weapons, resupplied wounded men, and during an assault by more than thirty enemy soldiers occupied the most vulnerable forward position, delivering heavy fire and throwing grenades to stop the attack virtually single-handedly. He continued to aid the wounded, reposition them for defense, went out again under sniper fire to locate five isolated soldiers and lead them to safety, and when evacuation helicopters arrived, set up a guiding beacon, established evacuation priorities, and carried eighteen wounded men to an extraction site before joining another platoon in the pursuit of the enemy.