The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Derek C. Mitchell (MCSN: 816662), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with the Second Battalion, Twenty-eighth Marines, FIFTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, on 22 February 1945. When the evacuation of two seriously wounded Marines from a rocky beach south of Mount Suribachi was deemed impractical because of enemy fire, Corporal Mitchell volunteered to attempt the evacuation by sea. After a raft had been towed to within 200 years of the shore, he and some other volunteers boarded it and proceeded toward the shore despite the hazards of high surf, jagged submerged rocks which lined the beach approaches and a fierce fire fight which was taking place near the point selected for the landing. Gaining the beach and placing one of the wounded Marines on the raft with one of the rescue team to prevent his falling into the water, Corporal Mitchell and his comrades launched the raft and, remained in the water, guided it while the landing craft towed them to a destroyer standing approximately one mile off shore. Although near exhaustion, he returned to the beach and aided in evacuating the other wounded Marine. His courageous initiative, perseverance and unselfish devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.