The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Technical Sergeant Beauford Theodore Anderson, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on 13 April 1945, while serving with Company A, 1st Battalion, 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division, in action at Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands. When a powerfully conducted predawn Japanese counterattack struck his unit’s flank, Technical Sergeant Anderson ordered his men to take cover in an old tomb, and then, armed only with a carbine, faced the onslaught alone. After emptying one magazine at pointblank range into the screaming attackers, he seized an enemy mortar dud and threw it back among the charging Japs, killing several as it burst. Securing a box of mortar shells, he extracted the safety pins, banged the bases upon a rock to arm them and proceeded alternately to hurl shells and fire his piece among the fanatical foe, finally forcing them to withdraw. Despite the protests of his comrades, and bleeding profusely from a severe shrapnel wound, he made his way to his company commander to report the action. Technical Sergeant Anderson’s intrepid conduct in the face of overwhelming odds accounted for 25 enemy killed and several machineguns and knee mortars destroyed, thus single-handedly removing a serious threat to the company’s flank.