The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Captain Donald M. Beck (MCSN: 0-8262), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as Commanding Officer of Company B, First Battalion, Twenty-First Marines, THIRD Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Guam, Mariana Islands, from 21 July to 10 August 1944. When his company was pinned down and suffered heavy casualties under sudden enfilading, direct artillery fire and after it had advanced five hundred yards in an attack against strong hostile forces, Captain Beck withdrew on order and, reorganizing into platoons, re-manned his lines with only seventy-two men. During a subsequent enemy full-force attack, his men held the line determinedly, exacting such a heavy toll from the Japanese that a dawn counterattack by an adjacent company was able to restore the lines. Separated from his platoons by infiltrating hostile troops who had severed his communications, Captain Beck remained with three men at his Command Post to report the situation to Battalion Headquarters by radio, thereby enabling his Battalion Commander to locate and localize the breakthrough. Captain Beck’s tactical skill, courage and unwavering devotion to duty throughout were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.