The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant Michael Matyas (MCSN: 332916), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Squad Leader of Company C, First Battalion, First Marines, FIRST Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Peleliu, Palau Islands, 15 and 19 September 1944. Wounded and evacuated while leading an assault on a hostile machine-gun emplacement, Sergeant Matyas returned to the lines shortly afterward and assumed command of his squad. On the night of 10 September, he led his men in an assault on the heavily defended slopes of Hill 100 and, under deadly cross-fire from numerically superior enemy automatic weapons, advanced at the head of his squad and overcame the Japanese in hand-to-hand combat. Organizing the defensive positions on the exposed right flank of the company, he held them throughout the night against repeated enemy counterattacks. His courage and devotion to duty reflect the highest credit upon Sergeant Matyas and the United States Naval Service.