The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Captain Ernest F. Chase (MCSN: 0-8195), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as Pilot of a Fighter Plane in Marine Fighting Squadron TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR (VMF-224), in action against enemy Japanese forces off Okinawa Shima, Ryukyu Islands, 13 May 1945. Flying on radar picket patrol, Captain Chase sighted a friendly destroyer lying dead in the water and undergoing attack by an enemy suicide plane. Unhesitatingly diving through intense antiaircraft fire from the ship, he pressed home his attack and shot the hostile craft down in flames. By his skilled airmanship, courage and devotion to duty, he aided in saving the ship from destruction and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.