The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Captain (Infantry), [then First Lieutenant] Bernard A. Reardon (ASN: 0-1319249), United States Army, for gallantry in action while serving with Company D, 276th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division, on 18 February 1945. During the attack upon a strongly defended enemy position on a hill near Oetingen, France, when his company was temporarily halted by hostile automatic weapons fire and booby-trapped barbed wire, Captain Reardon, armed only with hand grenades and a Thompson submachine gun, moved to the fore of his company and, disregarding the heavy enemy fire, led an assault upon his objective. Despite being wounded in the leg, Captain Reardon pressed the attack with such vigor and aggressiveness, throwing hand grenades and firing his submachine gun, that his troops, inspired by his example of courage and audacity, swept over and demolished a seemingly impregnable enemy position.