The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to First Lieutenant Felix A. Endico (MCSN: 0-25971), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Rifle Platoon Leader, of Company F, Second Battalion, Ninth Marines, THIRD Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, from 24 February to 11 March 1945. During a night attack on 7 March, First Lieutenant Endico single-handedly put a hostile tank out of action with hand grenades and, when his ammunition supply was expended, courageously engaged an enemy soldier in furious hand-to-hand combat before killing him with a blow from his carbine. Assuming command of a rifle company on 11 March, he gallantly led his company in two assaults which resulted in the destruction of two hundred enemy troops and the reduction of thirty-five caves and pillboxes. By his aggressive leadership, fortitude and determination, first Lieutenant Endico upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.