Ross Franklin Gray

On February 21^st, 1945 Sergeant Gray was serving as a Platoon Sergeant attached to Company A, 1^st Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division, Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, when his platoon was held up by a sudden barrage of hostile grenades while advancing toward the high ground northeast of Airfield No. 1. Sergeant Gray promptly organized the withdrawal of his men from enemy grenade range, quickly moved forward alone to reconnoiter and discovered a heavily mined area extending along the front of a strong network of emplacements joined by covered trenches. Under fire, he cleared a path leading through the minefield to one of the fortifications, then returned to the platoon, informing his leader of the serious situation. He volunteered to initiate an attack under cover of three fellow Marines. Alone and unarmed, carrying a huge satchel charge, he crept up on the Japanese emplacement, hurled the short-fused explosive and sealed the entrance. Instantly taken under machinegun fire from a second entrance to the same position, he braved the increasingly vicious fusillades to crawl back for another charge, returned to his objective and blasted the second opening, thereby demolishing the position. Repeatedly covering the ground between the savagely defended enemy fortifications and his platoon area, he systematically approached, attacked, and withdrew under blanketing fire to destroy a total of six Japanese positions, more than 25 troops, and a quantity of vital ordnance gear and ammunition.  Sgt. Gray had single-handedly overcome a strong enemy garrison and had completely disarmed a large minefield before finally rejoining his unit.