The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal John J. Wallace (MCSN: 428684), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Squad Leader of Company A, First Battalion, Twenty-fifth Marines, FOURTH Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands on 7 March 1945. When the advance of his platoon was stopped by enemy automatic weapons fire from a cave fifty yards to the front, Corporal Wallace voluntarily crawled forward alone to the base of the cone shaped cave and around to the rear where he came under direct fire from a Japanese machine gun position supporting this cave. Bravely continuing through withering machine gun fire to the top of the hill in which the cave was located, he threw a charge into the entrance of the emplacement killing the hostile crew and thereby enabling his platoon to continue the advance and complete its mission. His outstanding courage and devotion to duty in the face of grave peril reflect the highest credit upon Corporal Wallace and the United States Naval Service.