The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Platoon Sergeant George L. Weiss (MCSN: 272585), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty while serving as a Machine Gun Section Leader of Company G, Third Battalion, Twenty-Eighth Marines, FIFTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the assault on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 22 February 1945. When one of his men was seriously wounded, toppled from the top of a ridge overlooking a cave-studded enemy pocket and fell in front of a Japanese cave from which issued a deadly hail of fire and concussion grenades, Platoon Sergeant Weiss immediately dispatched one of his men to the rear to obtain several used machine-gun belts from the tanks. Upon receiving the belts, he ingeniously tied them into a long line with a harness at one end. After working his way alone down the cliff and tying the harness around the wounded man, he retraced his steps up the tortuous cliff amid the constant barrage of hostile fire and hauled the man to safety. His outstanding courage and devotion to duty in the face of devastating enemy fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.