The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Thomas Withrow (MCSN: 445014), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with the Second Battalion, Twenty-third Marines, FOURTH Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands on the night of 8 – 9 March 1945. During a counter attack when a well-armed group of the enemy succeeded in infiltrating to the interior of the Battalion Command Post, Corporal Withrow voluntarily crawled from fox hole to fox hole seeking out the Japanese in the darkness. Although subjected to point blank fire and grenade bursts he continued tenaciously to hunt out the hostile troops and succeeded in annihilating three of them. By his aggressive fighting spirit and courage he contributed materially to the removal of a serious threat to the operational functions of the Command Post at an extremely critical time and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.