Ross F . Gray Sergeant Ross Franklin Gray ( August 1 , 1920 – February 27 , 1945 ) was a United States Marine who posthumous ly received the Medal of Honor — the highest military honor of the United States — for his heroic service in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II — he single - handedly disarmed an entire mine field while under heavy enemy fire . He was killed in action six days later . Early years . Ross Franklin Gray was born in Marvel Valley , Alabama . He attended the elementary schools of Bibb County and went on to Centerville High School , which he left in 1939 after three years in attendance . He went to work for his father as a carpenter . He had already worked at that trade part - time for three years and now worked another three years before he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve . He played football and basketball at Centerville High and enjoyed hunting and fishing . He was a devout Protestant ; in fact , his buddies in the Marine Corps called him " The Deacon . " Marine Corps service . Gray enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in Birmingham , Alabama on July 22 , 1942 , and was assigned to active duty the same day . After receiving his recruit training at Parris Island , South Carolina , he went to New River , North Carolina , and in September joined the 23rd Marines , 4th Marine Division . Promoted to private first class in April 1943 , he was transferred to Company A , 1st Battalion 25th Marines , a month later . Private First Class Gray left for overseas duty on January 13 , 1944 and landed at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands where he took part in the Roi - Namur campaign . He was made an engineering corporal in March and in June made another assault landing — this time at Saipan . At the conclusion of the fighting at Saipan , Cpl Gray took part in the landing on Tinian Island , also in the Marianas . Promoted to sergeant in August , he attended the 4th Marine Division Mine and Booby Trap School , upon completion of which he was rated qualified to instruct troops in the laying of mine fields ; the reconnaissance of enemy minefields , day and night ; the location , neutralization , disarming , and removal of mines ; the neutralization of booby - trapped mines ; and the day and night clearance of lanes through minefields . Examined and found qualified for promotion to the rank of staff sergeant , Sgt Gray , due to the lack of openings for that rate in his organization , was never promoted to the third pay grade . On February 21 , 1945 , two days after D - Day on Iwo Jima , Sgt Gray was acting platoon sergeant of one of Company A ' s platoons which had been held up by a sudden barrage of Japanese hand grenade s in the area northeast of Airfield No . 1 . Promptly withdrawing his platoon out of range of the grenades , he moved forward to reconnoiter . He ascertained that the advance was held up by a series of enemy emplacements connected by covered communication trenches and fronted by a mine field . Through a hail of enemy small arms fire , Sgt Gray cleared a path through the mine field up to the mouth of one of the fortifications , then returned to his own lines , where with three volunteers , he went back to the battalion dump and acquired twelve satchel charges . Placing these in a defiladed area within his platoon that was protected from immediate enemy fire , he took one weighing twenty - four pounds . Under covering fire from the three volunteers , Sgt Gray advanced up the path he had cleared and threw the charge into the enemy position in order to neutralize it . Immediately brought under fire from a machine gun in another opening of the same position , Sgt Gray returned to the defiladed spot , obtained another charge , returned to the position and this time completely destroyed it . Spotting another emplacement , he went through the mine field for the seventh and eighth time to get another charge and destroy another enemy stronghold . He continued this one - man attack , all the time under heavy small arms fire and grenade barrage , until he had destroyed six enemy positions . At one time a Japanese grenade landed so close to him that it blew his helmet off . Throughout , he went unarmed so that he could more easily carry the charges and accessories . When he had eliminated the six positions , Sgt Gray disarmed the whole mine field before returning to his platoon . Although he remained unscratched through his twelve trips back and forth among enemy mines , constantly under heavy fire , Sgt Gray was killed six days later , on February 27 , 1945 , by an enemy shell which inflicted fatal wounds in his legs . For his personal valor , daring tactics , and tenacious perseverance in the face of extreme peril on February 21 , Sgt Gray was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S . Truman . The coveted award was presented to the hero ' s father by Rear Admiral A . S . Merrill , United States Navy , then Commandant of the Eighth Naval District , at the football field at Centerville High School in the presence of the Governor of the State of Alabama , Chauncey Sparks , on April 16 , 1946 . Sergeant Gray was initially buried in the 4th Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima , but later his remains were returned to the United States for private burial in Woodstock , Alabama . Medal of Honor citation . The President of the United States takes pride in presenting in the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to SERGEANT ROSS F . GRAY UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE for service as set forth in the following CITATION : / S / HARRY S . TRUMAN Other recognition . The frigate was named for Sergeant Gray .