The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Second Lieutenant James A. Gallo, Jr. (MCSN: 0-21408), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for gallantry and intrepidity as a Rifle Platoon Leader of Company A, First Battalion, Third Marines, THIRD Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Guam, Mariana Islands, 21 and 22 July 1944. After his own platoon has suffered extremely heavy casualties and had become disorganized during the initial assault on an enemy-held ridge on D-Day, Second Lieutenant Gallo collected and reorganized all the remaining able-bodied men of his platoon as well as the remnants of two other platoons and again charged the ridge in the face of a heavy concentration of enemy fire, tenaciously holding a portion of the ridge from sundown throughout the night despite the loss of all but twenty of his men and the continuation of enemy grenade and small arms fire. Although suffering from concussion and hand grenade fragment wounds on the following morning, he led his men forward and succeeded in wresting the center of the crest of the ridge from the well-entrenched enemy. His indomitable fighting spirit, courage and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.