Hurshall Watt Hooker
Private, U. S. Marine Corps
Silver Star
GENERAL ORDERS:
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Private Hurshall W. Hooker (MCSN: 347472), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while a member of the First Battalion, Second Marines, Reinforced during action against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands Area on the early morning of 4 November 1942.
While rising in his foxhole to adjust his poncho, Private Hooker observed and upraised bayonet in the left hand of Japanese poised for a downward thrust into the body of a Marine who while asleep in his slit trench had previously received a foot wound from the same enemy. Unarmed and unmindful of another rifle armed Japanese nearby he sprang for the descending bayonet, grasped the blade tightly in his bare hands and with a sharp twist wrenched the weapon free, at the same time sending his antagonist sprawling to the ground with a jolting knee action. With the bayonet which he was still clutching painfully by the blade, he dealt the enemy a powerful blow in the face, momentarily stunning him until he could be shot and killed. Undeterred by the ominous presence of the second Japanese, who had fired at him and missed, Private Hooker, with all five fingers of his right hand badly cut at the second joint, gamely persisted until he had saved the life of his imperiled comrade.