The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant Robert W. Riley (MCSN: 298376), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as an Acting Platoon Leader of Company A, First battalion, First Marines, FIRST Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the assault on enemy-held Peleliu, Palau Islands, 15 September 1944. When repeated enemy counterattacks drove a wedge between two Marine Battalions and both his Platoon Leader and Platoon Sergeant became casualties, Sergeant Riley immediately assumed command of the platoon and, after reorganizing it while still under devastating cross-fire from newly emplaced enemy automatic weapons, placed himself at the head of his men and dislodged the enemy from the sector in hand-to-hand combat. Still continuously subjected to hostile fire, he organized the ground which had been gained and reestablished contact between his company and the adjacent battalion, after which he gathered stretcher-bearer teams and exposed himself in order to cover, by fire, the withdrawal of the wounded to positions of comparative safety. Throughout the night, Sergeant Riley continued to conduct defensive action from a point well forward of the front lines and, by his aggressive fighting spirit and cool courage under enemy fire, aided materially in overcoming a desperate situation. His conduct throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.