The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant Warren Herbert Tracey (MCSN: 292326), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as Leader of a Patrol of ten men serving with the Seventh Marines, Reinforced, FIRST Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces in the vicinity of Hill 80, Cape Gloucester, New Britain on 26 December 1943. Upon contacting another part of his patrol and finding one man wounded and pinned down by heavy fire from positions concealed in the dense jungle undergrowth, Sergeant Tracey quickly secured a machine gun to cover his action and crawling to an enemy pill box from which intense fire emanated, hurled in four hand grenades. When the grenades proved ineffectual, he withdrew from the line of fire, obtained six more and threw them into the hostile emplacement immediately silencing the enemy fire and making possible the evacuation of the wounded man. Sergeant Tracey’s heroic initiative and disregard for personal safety in the face of grave peril were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.