The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant Oliver Y. Hashizume (ASN: 30104484), United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with Company K, 3d Battalion, 442d Regimental Combat Team, attached to the 34th Infantry Division, on 16 and 17 July 1944, in the vicinity of Luciana, Italy. When his squad was pinned down by intense enemy small arms, mortar and 88-mm. artillery fire, Sergeant Hashizume crawled to the forward position of his squad and with his automatic rifleman maintained a protective fire while his men crawled to cover. The next day, while the squad was surrounded on three sides by the enemy, Sergeant Hashizume repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to direct his men in setting up effective defense against the numerically superior enemy. During this action, which lasted for eight hours, his squad of eight men killed or wounded fifteen of the enemy and silenced a machine pistol and two machine gun nests and caused another machine gun crew to abandon its position. The skillful leadership and courage of Sergeant Hashizume enabled the rest of the company to close in from the opposite end of the town and capture two tanks and 27 prisoners.