The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant John R. Lewis, Jr. (MCSN: 437490), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Platoon Guide of Company K, Third Battalion, Twenty-third Marines, FOURTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 11 March 1945. When a patrol of about twenty Japanese approached his platoon from the rear, Sergeant Lewis courageously fired on it in order to warn his comrades of the enemy’s presence despite the certainty that his own position would be over-run by the superior number of hostile troops. Although wounded by a grenade during the ensuing struggle, he fought fiercely against a Japanese who attacked him with a bayonet and succeeded in throwing the enemy to the ground and strangling him. By his courage and disregard of personal safety in giving warning, he enabled his platoon to destroy the enemy patrol, thereby upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.