The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Private Walter A. Kelley (MCSN: 934078), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with Company H, Third Battalion, Twenty-Seventh Marines, FIFTH Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 28 February 1945. Bold and aggressive, Private Kelley fought valiantly during the bitter attack against a heavily armed hostile force deeply entrenched on the commanding ground of Hill Three Sixty-Two and, when a vital telephone wire to the battalion command post was destroyed while consolidating for the night, unhesitatingly volunteered to lay a wire through an area blanketed by the enemy’s machine-gun fire. Mortally wounded while accomplishing this mission, Private Kelley, by his unflinching courage and daring initiative in the face of grave peril, rendered valiant service, and his conduct throughout upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.