The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Louis A. Ohlsen (MCSN: 460951), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Squad Leader of Headquarters Company, First Battalion, Twenty-eighth Marines, FIFTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the assault on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 9 March 1945. Serving as assistant Squad Leader when the Squad Leader was killed, Corporal Ohlsen assumed command and, when the company to which the squad was attached was pinned down by heavy hostile machine-gun fire coming from an enemy pillbox to the front, rushed forward alone under intense hostile fire and assaulted the emplacement with hand grenades until close enough to place flame thrower fire upon it, thereby destroying six of the enemy and enabling the company to continue its advance. His outstanding courage and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.