Marine Sergeant Darrell Samuel Cole

MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT
Marine Sergeant Darrell Samuel Cole

In January of 1945 Sergeant Cole, who had been promoted the previous November, sailed with his company for an unknown island that was to become one of the most famous battlefields of American history-Iwo Jima. On D-Day, 19 February Sergeant Cole led his machine gun section ashore in the assault on Iwo's shifting beaches. One of his squads had hardly reached dry land before their advance was halted by a deadly hail of fire from two enemy positions. Taking stock of the situation, Cole crawled forward and wiped out the two positions with hand grenades. His unit continued the advance until they were again halted by fire from three Japanese pillboxes. One of Cole's machine guns silenced the most threatening position, and then jammed. Armed only with a pistol and one hand grenade, Sergeant Cole made a one-man attack against the two remaining positions. Twice be returned to his own lines for additional grenades and continued the attack under the fierce enemy fire until he had succeeded in destroying the Japanese strong point. Returning to his own squad, he was instantly killed by an enemy grenade. By his one-man attack and heroic self-sacrifice, Sergeant Cole enabled his company to move forward against the remaining fortifications and attain their ultimate objective.