The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Lee H. Stacey (MCSN: 451367), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as Leader of a Machine-gun Squad of Company L, Third Battalion, Twenty-first Marines, THIRD Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 1 March 1945. Observing intense enemy machine-gun fire halt and pin down a stretcher team attempting to evacuate a wounded man, Corporal Stacey risked his life to draw the hostile fire from the stretcher team and permit it to withdraw to cover. Then, crawling through heavy Japanese fire, he dragged the wounded man to safety, although wounded himself while performing this deed. His initiative, cool courage and unselfish devotion to the welfare of his comrades was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.