The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Staff Sergeant Charles E. Harris (MCSN: 339838), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with Headquarters Company, Second Battalion, Twenty-eighth Marines, FIFTH Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces during the assault on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands on 22 February 1945. Organizing a rescue party to attempt the evacuation of two seriously wounded Marines trapped by heavy enemy fire on the rocky beach south of Mount Suribachi, Staff Sergeant Harris procured a life raft, had it towed by a landing craft to within two hundred yards of the shore and then began paddling the raft through the rock infested surf to the beach. Although a fire fight was in progress only a short distance from the landing point, he succeeded in reaching the casualties unobserved and placing one of the wounded men on the raft with a member of the rescue team to hold him, plunged into the water and assisted in guiding and steadying the raft while the landing craft towed them to a destroyer approximately a mile offshore. After the casualty was taken aboard the destroyer, Staff Sergeant Harris and his weary men returned immediately to the beach and, by the same perilous method, evacuated the other wounded Marine. His inspiring initiative, courage and perseverance were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.