Realizing that the wounded must be removed to the rear and the heights must be taken, Pvt McTureous, on his own initiative, filled his pockets with grenades, jammed more of the explosives inside his jacket, and charged up the hill and into the enemy position where he knew the accurate rifle and machine-gun fire was coming from.

Running among the caves, he tossed grenades into the Japanese positions as Marine stretcher-bearers came forward to remove the wounded during the temporary lull caused by his furious one-man assault.

Passing one cave, he was badly wounded in the stomach but instead of calling for help and risking other men being hit in attempts to rescue him, he stoically crawled 200 yards to a sheltered place within the Marine lines before asking for aid.

Pvt McTureous was evacuated to a hospital ship, the USS Relief, and given large quantities of blood in an attempt to save his life, but all efforts failed and on the morning of June 11, 1945 he died at sea.

The Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military award, was presented to Pvt McTureous' parents at a ceremony in Altoona on August 7, 1946.

Coolly disregarding all personal danger as he waged his furious one-man assault, he smashed grenades into the cave entrances, thereby diverting the heaviest fire from the stretcher-bearers to his own person and, resolutely returning to his own lines under a blanketing hail of rifle and Machine-gun fire to replenish his supply of grenades, dauntlessly continued his systematic reduction of Japanese strength until he himself sustained serious wounds after silencing a large number of the hostile guns.

Aware of his own critical condition and unwilling to further endanger the lives of his comrades, he stoically crawled a distance of two hundred yards to a sheltered position within friendly lines before calling for aid.

By his fearless initiative and bold tactics, Private McTureous had succeeded in neutralizing the enemy fire, killing six of the Japanese and effectively disorganizing the remainder of the savagely defending garrison.

His outstanding valor and heroic spirit of self-sacrifice during a critical stage of operations reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service.