The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to First Lieutenant Charles E. Callahan (MCSN: 0-16774), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as a Platoon Leader of Company I, Third Battalion, Twenty-first Marines, THIRD Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces at Guam, Mariana Islands, on 3 August 1944. Voluntarily assuming command after his Company Commander had been wounded and his Executive Officer had been killed at Finegayan, First Lieutenant Callahan immediately organized his men for a coordinated attack against a hostile road block that had halted a motorized reconnaissance patrol. With the company’s advance impeded by intense hostile machine-gun fire, he boldly exposed himself to a rain of enemy fire to move forward to an effective firing position and, launching a hand grenade and carbine attack, assisted in killing the crews of two machine guns and in silencing the enemy emplacements. By his daring initiative, leadership and courageous devotion to duty, First Lieutenant Callahan upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.