The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Gilbert J. Smoot (MCSN: 443226), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as an Acting Platoon leader of Company C, First Battalion, Twenty-first Marines, THIRD Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 3 March 1945. Assuming command after the Platoon Leader and Platoon Sergeant were wounded, Corporal Smoot voluntarily moved forward alone in front of his company’s lines to locate a hostile mortar position which had inflicted heavy casualties on his company. Courageously scaling a cliff while under intense enemy small-arms fire, he succeeded in discovering the position and, armed with an automatic rifle, shot and killed twenty of the enemy and forced the remainder to take cover. By his heroic action, Corporal Smoot enabled his company to continue its advance and, by his fortitude, initiative and devotion to duty, upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.