The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Bertram H. Rutan (MCSN: 804290), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Squad Leader of Company C, First Battalion, Twenty-seventy Marines, FIFTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, on 28 February 1945. When his company’s advance was held up by a heavily fortified hostile emplacement of four heavy machine guns and two light machine guns, Corporal Rutan courageously volunteered to lead tank across a fire-swept area to a position in front of the lines from which it could deliver accurate fire on the enemy emplacement. Although he sustained a painful wound while guiding the tank, he remained in his hazardous position to direct the fire of the tank and aided greatly in destroying the hostile emplacement and in enabling the assault companies to move forward in that area. By his aggressive fighting spirit and initiative, Corporal Rutan upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.