The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Private Gustave V. Hanson (MCSN: 442561), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving in a Reconnaissance Party of the Second Tank Battalion, SECOND Marine Division during action against enemy Japanese forces at Tarawa, Gilbert Islands on 20 November 1943. When a lane of channel marker laid by his part over 1200 yard shell and bomb pocked coral reef was swept away during landing operations on D-Day, Private Hanson unhesitatingly stood fast in his dangerous position, serving as a human channel marker despite the enemy’s incessant shell fire to signal tanks on a safe route to the beach. By his daring initiative, dauntless perseverance and self-sacrificing devotion to the completion of an extremely perilous mission, Private Hanson contributed this vital hostile stronghold and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.