D.A. CARSON, Private First Class, United States Marine Corps Reserve, for extraordinary heroism while serving in a Squad of Company D, Second Battalion, Twenty-eighth Marines, Fifth Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces at Iowa Jima, Volcano Islands, on 1 March 1945. When his assault squad and an attached machine gun squad had suffered seven casualties and were pinned down by machine-gun fire from an enemy pillbox, Private First Class Carson crawled thrity yards through intense fire to a position close to the side of the pillbox. Although the Japansese observed him and were attempting to prevent him from reaching it with a barrage of hand grenades, he charged the pillbox and, grasping the enemy machine gun by the barrle, pulled it from the embrasure, thus enabling the remainder of his squad to advance and neutralize hostile resistance in that sector. Private First Class Carsons’ initiative and great personal valor under extremely hazardous conditions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Mr. Carson joined the Legion of Valor in 1985.