The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Technical Sergeant Harold J. Harter (ASN: 36603047), United States Army, for gallantry in action against the enemy as a member of Company K, *** Infantry Regiment, 95th Infantry Division, on 21 November 1944, in the vicinity of Metz, France. On his way to the Battalion Aid Station, where he had been ordered to report because of a feverish illness, Technical Sergeant Harter met a Sergeant of his Company who was seeking men to help guard a hospital among whose occupants was a German General. Despite the handicap of his sickness, Technical Sergeant Harter willingly agreed to accompany his comrade back to the hospital. There, a German nurse took Technical Sergeant Harter’s temperature and finding it dangerously high warned him to go to bed. Technical Sergeant Harter demurred and went instead to an operating room where the German General was undergoing surgery. As he entered the room a group of SS troops appeared, bearing a stretcher, on which they had planned to carry away their general. But upon encountering Technical Sergeant Harter they fled. Technical Harter gave chase but the rapidly retreating SS troops escaped through the maze of tunnels channeling the hospital; and Technical Sergeant Harter returned to the operating room to guard the German General. In a few moments an enemy Captain arrived, ostensibly to accomplish the mission in which the SS men had failed, but Technical Sergeant Harter apprehended him and made him a prisoner. Technical Sergeant Harter’s intrepid perseverance in performing his duty, despite the hazardous circumstances of his illness and hostile surroundings, insured the capture of the German General and his Staff and thereby contributed materially to the final capitulation of Metz. His gallant conduct reflects great credit upon himself, and is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.