Donald J. Ruhl

He faced withering fire to save wounded Marines on Iwo Jima.

Donald Jack Ruhl served as a rifleman in Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division. Born in Columbus, Montana, on 2 July 1923, he graduated from Joliet High School and enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in September 1942. He trained as a parachutist and served in the Solomon Islands before joining the newly formed 5th Marine Division.

Landing on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, Ruhl attacked Japanese soldiers escaping a blockhouse. The following morning he left cover under mortar and machine-gun fire to retrieve a wounded Marine. After bringing the casualty back, he helped carry him to the beach aid station and returned to the fighting. He subsequently occupied an abandoned enemy gun position overnight.

On 21 February, while fighting near a Japanese bunker, a grenade landed beside Ruhl and another Marine. He warned his companion and threw himself onto it, absorbing the explosion rather than escaping from the bunker edge. He was killed, aged 21. His Medal of Honor recognized the three days of courage culminating in this sacrifice.

The decoration was presented to his parents in Greybull, Wyoming, on 12 January 1947. Originally buried on Iwo Jima, his remains were later returned to Greybull.

### Official Medal of Honor citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifleman in an assault platoon of Company E, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands from 19-21 February 1945. Quick to press the advantage after eight Japanese had been driven from a blockhouse on D-day, Pfc. Ruhl singlehandedly attacked the group, killing one of the enemy with his bayonet and another by rifle fire in his determined attempt to annihilate the escaping troops. Cool and undaunted as the fury of hostile resistance steadily increased throughout the night, he voluntarily left the shelter of his tank trap early in the morning of D-day plus one and moved out under a tremendous volume of mortar and machine-gun fire to rescue a wounded marine lying in an exposed position approximately 40 yards forward of the line. Half pulling and half carrying the wounded man, he removed him to a defiladed position, called for an assistant and a stretcher and, again running the gauntlet of hostile fire, carried the casualty to an aid station some 300 yards distant on the beach. Returning to his platoon, he continued his valiant efforts, volunteering to investigate an apparently abandoned Japanese gun emplacement 75 yards forward of the right flank during consolidation of the front lines, and subsequently occupying the position through the night to prevent the enemy from repossessing the valuable weapon. Pushing forward in the assault against the vast network of fortifications surrounding Mt. Suribachi the following morning, he crawled with his platoon guide to the top of a Japanese bunker to bring fire to bear on enemy troops located on the far side of the bunker. Suddenly a hostile grenade landed between the two marines. Instantly Pfc. Ruhl called a warning to his fellow marine and dived on the deadly missile, absorbing the full impact of the shattering explosion in his own body and protecting all within range from the danger of flying fragments although he might easily have dropped from his position on the edge of the bunker to the ground below. An indomitable fighter, Pfc. Ruhl rendered heroic service toward the defeat of a ruthless enemy, and his valor, initiative, and unfaltering spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of almost certain death sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.