The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Edward C. Stanick (MCSN: 807797), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Bazooka Man in a Rifle Platoon of Company K, Third Battalion, Twenty-fifth Marines, FOURTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 19 February 1945. Observing an enemy antitank gun that was inflicting heavy casualties on his company, Corporal Stanick voluntarily left a position of comparative safety, maneuvered himself into a position behind the enemy emplacement and, although exposed to the fire of two enemy machine guns protecting the weapon, destroyed it in spite of painful wounds received when an enemy mortar shell exploded near him. His courage and unwavering devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.