The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Commander (MC), [then Lieutenant] Jack Clark McCurdy (NSN: 0-191788), United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage, and disregard of personal danger while serving as Battalion Surgeon of the First Battalion, Twenty-Second Marines, Reinforced, SIXTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Guam, Mariana Islands, on 21 July 1944. Going ashore with the assault waves of his battalion on D-Day, Lieutenant Commander McCurdy suffered a fragment wound through the arm, powder burns about the eyes and face and was knocked unconscious when the amphibious tractor in which he was riding across the reef near the shore was hit repeatedly by a large caliber Japanese shore gun. Upon regaining consciousness and learning that all the occupants of his vehicle had been killed or wounded, he made his way to the beach and, despite the seriousness of his wounds, established an aid station almost single-handedly and began to treat the many wounded on the beach, refusing to be evacuated until a relief was obtained late in the afternoon. His courage, fortitude and devotion to duty upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.