The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Private First Class Leonard J. Smith (MCSN: 367539), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with Headquarters Company Second Battalion, Twenty-eighth Marines, FIFTH Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese forces at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, on 22 February 1945. When attempts to evacuate two wounded marines from a rocky fire-swept beach south of Mount Suribachi had failed, Private First Class Smith asked permission to attempt the rescue by sea and, with the aid of three companions, procured a cork life raft from a destroyer in the anchorage and a landing craft to tow the party to the beach. Aware of the danger from jagged, submerged rocks lining the beach approaches and with his battalion engaged in a bitter fire fight near the selected landing point, Private First Class Smith and his comrades were towed by the landing craft to within two hundred yards of the shore where they donned life jackets and boarded the raft. Dashed against a rock by a large breaker and thrown into the treacherous surf during the approach, they succeeded in up righting the craft and, proceeding to shore when the sea subsided, secured one of the wounded men to the raft for towing to a destroyed anchored a mile offshore, subsequently returning to evacuate the other Marine despite extreme exhaustion. By his daring initiative, outstanding fortitude and grave concern for the safety of others in the face of tremendous odds, Private First Class Smith contributed to the saving of two men who otherwise might have perished and his valiant conduct throughout reflects the highest credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service.