Mark Leslie Shannon

Pharmacist's Mate 1st Class, U. S. Navy

Silver Star

GENERAL ORDERS:
Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 321 (December 1943)
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Pharmacist's Mate First Class Mark L. Shannon, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Corpsman attached to the FIRST Marine Aircraft Wing during an attack on the Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, by enemy Japanese surface and air forces on the night of 13 - 14 October 1942.
When several salvos from Japanese warships fell short and exploded in a bivouac area, Pharmacist's Mate First Class Shannon, at the height of the action, voluntarily left his place of safety, obtained an ambulance half a mile away, removed wounded officers and men to a sheltered area, obtained blood plasma for them, and at dawn took them under fire to Henderson Field, where they were loaded into an ambulance plane. His great courage under fire and unwavering devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.