Posted on 03/26/2023 9:07:07 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
See Paul Fussell’s article “Thank God for the Atomic Bomb”
It’s been posted as a topic many times (and in many versions) over the years, but thanks c_va for posting it here.
Sgt. John Basilone, who got the Medal of Honor for his tireless work on Guadalcanal, was doing bond tours and such for a few years, while continually requesting a return to action at Iwo Jima. He found and singlehandedly destroyed one of the Japanese bunkers that was raking the beach, and then helped a trapped US tank and enabled the landing forces to get up and at the enemy. And he was killed in that first day of the battle.
As Patton said, “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”
Whoops, “continually requesting a return to action”, then a period. “On February 19, 1945, he returned to action for the Battle of Iwo Jima” etc.
Interestingly enough, his widow is buried in the same cemetery as Mitchell and Mrs. Paige.
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