The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star (Army Award to Major [then Captain] William L. Flake (MCSN: 0-8337), United States Marine Corps, for gallantry in action while serving with the Fourth Marine Raider Battalion at Vangunu, Solomon Islands, wherein he personally located three hostile machine-gun emplacements and aggressively led his men forward under fire to destroy them at the cost of a serious wound to himself on 1 July 1943.