In January 1944, he was transferred to the 5th Marine Division and assumed command of the 28th Marines. He gallantly led the "twenty-eighth" ashore in the Iwo Jima campaign, for which he was awarded a Gold Star in lieu of his second Navy Cross. Following a brief tour of duty with the occupation forces in Japan, he was ordered to the Marine Corps Base in San Diego in March 1946. In July 1946 he was assigned duties as director of the Twelfth Marine Reserve District and District Marine Officer, Twelfth Naval District, San Francisco.