 At dawn on August 18, 1965, as part of Operation Starlite, a preemptive strike against the Viet Cong force, O'Malley's battalion performed an amphibious landing near the village of An Cuong 2.Shortly after landing, they came under mortar and small arms fire.During the ensuing firefight, O'Malley single-handedly attacked a Viet Cong trench and helped to evacuate wounded Marines.