The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Fonnie B. Ladd (MCSN: 251835), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with the Fifth Defense Battalion, Reinforced, Fleet Marine Force, during the enemy Japanese bombing of Funafuti Island on 22 April 1943. Corporal Ladd, with complete disregard for his own safety and with bombs falling in the area, guided a group of Army personnel to an air raid shelter. He then entered the native church and induced some forty natives to leave the church and follow him to their village, where he dispersed them into slit trenches and along the ground just a moment before a direct bomb hit demolished the church. Returning to the Army area, he found two seriously wounded soldiers, applied tourniquets to stop their bleeding, and started with them for medical aid. Although fragments from exploding bombs damaged his vehicle, Corporal Ladd fearlessly continued on his mission and succeeded in delivering the wounded to the hospital. His great courage, perseverance, and unwavering devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.