The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Corporal Allen Pileckas (MCSN: 413970), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with Company E, Second Battalion, Twenty-First Marines, THIRD Marine Division, in action against Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, in the Volcano Islands, on 1 March 1945. Crawling forward alone fifty yards into enemy territory, Corporal Pileckas valiantly risked his life under intense hostile rifle, mortar and machine-gun fire and, taking the enemy by surprise as he reached the flank of a fiercely defended position which was holding up the evacuation of his platoon’s casualties, hurled grenades into the emplacement until he had destroyed the crew and silenced its guns. By his initiative, outstanding devotion to duty and courage in the face of grave personal danger, Corporal Pileckas enabled his platoon to consolidate its position and evacuate its wounded and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.