The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Second Lieutenant John R. Cudworth (MCSN: 0-29211), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as a Rifle Platoon Leader of Company A, First Battalion, Ninth Marines, THIRD Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands on 27 February 1945. When an enemy machine gun firing across the company front halted the entire company advance against a strongly fortified hostile position, Second Lieutenant Cudworth acted on his own initiative and although the weapon was out of his zone of action, moved toward it a distance of seventy-five yards in the face of intense machine gun and mortar fire. Then, with the assistance of three other men he succeeded in destroying the gun and killing the crew thereby enabling his company to continue the attack and seize a dominating terrain feature. Second Lieutenant Cudworth’s leadership throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.