The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal James L. Garrett (MCSN: 420556), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with Company B, First Tank Battalion, FIRST Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Peleliu Island, Palau Group, on 29 September 1944. When his tank was disabled by an enemy anti-tank mine directly in the line of fire of an enemy pillbox, Corporal Garrett unhesitatingly jumped from his own tank and, in the face of heavy enemy mortar and machine gun fire from the pillbox and adjacent strong points, attached the towing cable of his tank to another tank which towed it to a safer area. By his initiative, courage and devotion to duty, he saved his tank from capture or destruction and aided materially in the successful support of the attack, thereby upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.