The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Private First Class William N. Pegg (MCSN: 866738), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with Company B, First Battalion, Twenty-seventh Marines, FIFTH Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands on 19 February 1945. When his company and an adjacent unit were pinned down by heavy automatic fire from a hostile bunker to their front and intense mortar and artillery fire was inflicting extensive casualties throughout the entire sector, Private First Class Pegg voluntarily moved up the hill with a flame thrower on his back and boldly initiated an assault on the bunker. Braving intense hostile small arms fire and barrage of well-aimed hand grenades he courageously closed in on the pill box and directed the flame into the aperture destroying a dual purpose gun and killing seven of the enemy within. By his cool and heroic action, Private First Class Pegg aided greatly in enabling his company to move forward and continue the attack. His initiative, fortitude and aggressive spirit were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.