The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Richard H. Stacey (MCSN: 273103), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with Company C, First Tank Battalion, FIRST Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces at Peleliu, Palau Islands, on 15 September 1944. Observing a wounded officer struggling in the water off the beach, Corporal Stacey immediately left his amphibious tractor and, braving an intense barrage of enemy mortar and machine-gun fire, waded approximately fifty yards into waist-deep water to rescue the man and evacuate him to a place of comparative safety on the beach. Then, courageously working his way along the beach for approximately two hundred yards in the face of heavy enemy fire, he secured a hospital corpsman from an aid station and returned with him to assist in administering first aid to the wounded officer. By his initiative, courage and devotion to duty, Corporal Stacey upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.