The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Albert J. Karczewski (MCSN: 432496), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Demolitions Corporal and a Squad Leader of Company L, Third Battalion, Twenty-first Marines, THIRD Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 10 March 1945. In an engagement requiring the closest of team work between tanks and infantry, Corporal Karczewski capably led his squad and exposed himself many times to extreme danger to direct a tank in a point-blank range on the enemy. When his vehicle was knocked out by hostile cannon fire, Corporal Karczewski made a desperate effort to learn the fate of the occupants. Finding that only one man remained alive, but was helpless as a result of wounds, he climbed to the top of the vehicle and, entering through the turret in full view of the enemy who immediately opened fire on him, succeeded in extricating the wounded man and carrying him to a place of safety. His courage initiative and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.