The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Cloyce L. Fruth (MCSN: 448332), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Machine Gun Section Leader of Company E, Second Battalion, Twenty-third Marines, FOURTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the assault on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 8 March 1945. When the other members of his section had become casualties during a heavy enemy counterattack, Corporal Fruth single-handedly operated two light machine guns and, by moving back and forth between the two guns despite heavy hostile fire, kept two sectors which were not otherwise covered, under fire, and through his courageous actions, he greatly aided his platoon in repulsing a hostile counterattack, and his devotion to duty throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.