The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Second Lieutenant (Infantry) Raymond L. Keplinger, Jr. (ASN: 0-555892), United States Army, for gallantry in action while serving with the Anti-Tank Company, 242d Infantry Regiment, 42d Infantry Division, in action on 9 January 1945 near Hatten, France. Lieutenant Keplinger was with the third squad of his anti-tank platoon protecting the flanks of two battalions when ten hostile armored vehicles approached the squad’s position from a woods. Realizing that the squad would soon exhaust their ammunition Lieutenant Keplinger drove his jeep under intense fire to the other gun positions, loaded it with ammunition and returned in the face of heavy fire from the tanks. Although wounded three times by shell fragments, Lieutenant Keplinger directed his platoon’s fire so skillfully that four Mark IV tanks and two personnel carriers were destroyed and more than sixty enemy killed. His courageous and gallant leadership was responsible for breaking up a determined hostile attack.