Sergeant Darrell Samuel Cole (1920 1945) was a US Marine who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Leader of a Machine-gun Section of Company B First Battalion Twenty-Third Marines Fourth Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces during the assault on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands 19 February 1945. Assailed by a tremendous volume of small-arms mortar and artillery fire as he advanced with one squad of his section in the initial assault wave Sergeant Cole boldly led his men up the sloping beach toward Airfield Number One despite the blanketing curtain of flying shrapnel and personally destroying with hand grenades two hostile emplacements which menaced the progress of his unit continued to move forward until a merciless barrage of fire emanating from three Japanese pillboxes halted the advance.
