The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Joseph R. Bureau (MCSN: 853296), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Squad Leader of Company A, First Battalion, First Marines, FIRST Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, 4 May 1945. When his company was halted by intense enemy machine-gun and mortar fire from the reverse slope of a hill which was the company’s objective, Corporal Bureau led a patrol to flank and destroy the enemy weapons and, as his group was rounding the hill, another machine gun opened fire and cut off the main body from the point. Aware of the situation, he and another member of the patrol continued the advance and, despite accurate sniper fire and Japanese grenades, attacked the positions, destroyed the enemy weapons and killed seventeen Japanese, thereby contributing materially to the success of the attack. By his initiative, indomitable fighting spirit and courageous devotion to duty, Corporal Bureau upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.