The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Private First Class John H. Long (MCSN: 372772), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Machine Gunner of Company H, Second Battalion, Twenty-second Marines, SIXTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the landing on Guam, Mariana Islands, 21 July 1944. Although rendered momentarily unconscious from a scalp wound sustained while his craft was en route to the beach, Private First Class Long re-manned his gun as soon as his wound had been treated. Sustaining a second wound his craft reached the beach, he remained at his gun and skillfully covered the debarkation of troops and supplies from his craft by neutralizing an enemy machine-gun which had been firing at point blank range. His courage and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.