The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Private First Class Fred L. Parks (MCSN: 331323), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a member of a mortar section of Company H, Third Battalion, Twenty-sixth Marines FIFTH Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands on 17 March 1945. After a group of enemy troops which had attacked the Command post had withdrawn and concealed themselves in a small cave, Private First Class Parks approached the cave with a comrade and demanded the surrender of the enemy. Met by a shower of grenades he rushed the cave’s entrance hurling grenades as he ran and single handedly discharged all hostile troops in the cave. Private First Class Parks’ resolute courage and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.