Posted on 05/25/2025 11:20:48 AM PDT by DFG
This Memorial Day, you could do much worse than remember John Basilone.
Eighty years ago, the US military was grinding it out from one Japanese-held Pacific island to another in a brutal, costly campaign as gut-wrenching as any in American history.
Basilone has an honored place in this story.
Born in Buffalo and raised in New Jersey by his Italian-American parents, he enlisted in the Army in the 1930s as a teenager. Then, after a stint as a civilian, he signed up for the Marines in 1940.
During the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942, he almost single-handedly held off a massive assault by a Japanese regiment against two machine gun sections he commanded.
Basilone’s exploits were worthy of an over-the-top scene from a war movie, or a great-hearted warrior from an ancient epic.
When the Japanese disabled one of the American gun crews, Basilone moved another machine gun into position and personally manned it, and also repaired another gun under heavy fire.
When they needed more supplies, Basilone ran through Japanese lines to get the ammunition, defending himself with his Colt .45.
He fought for days and, by the end, he and his comrades had basically annihilated the Japanese attackers.
Basilone lost his asbestos gloves in the chaos and still handled the searing machine gun barrels, sustaining burns on his hands.
He’d been, as Gen. Douglas MacArthur put it later, a “one-man army.”
Nash Phillips, a private who was wounded in the fight, recalled, “Basilone had a machine gun on the go for three days and nights without sleep, rest or food.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Gunnery Sergeant Basilone's buddies on Guadalcanal called him "Manila John" because he had served with the Army in the Philippines before enlisting in the Marine Corps.
If you look up Don Graves on YouTube, he’s still alive and former Marine who landed at Iwo Jima and carried the flamethrower.
He was at the top of Mount Suribachi when the flag was raised and claims to have been very close to where John Basilone was killed.
BTW, tomorrow starting at 11a Eastern AMC is running a Band of Brothers marathon.
The older I get the more I’m amazed at how these guys put aside their civilian lives and went off to charge into the teeth of the Dragon.
Took my 14 yr old, yesterday, up for a flight in “Doc”, one of only two B-29s still flying. I sat in the right gunners seat and tried to imagine even one 14 hour mission much less thirty five of them. God Bless them all.
His first flight ever was in a B-29 LOL
John Basilone was the real Rambo.
“Some figured out ways around this, like MOH recipient John Basilone, who developed what was known as the “Basilone Bale.” It was a simple handle made of a wood spool and wire slid onto the barrel of the machine gun so it could be carried when hot, and fired from the hip if necessary.”
I grew up in Bridgewater NJ. A town right next to Raritan NJ which is where John Basilone grew up. Every year there was a Memorial Day Parade in his and all the other Vets honor. Also Jack jack Ciattarelli who is running for Governor of NJ grew up in Raritan NJ. He and his family know well of John’s contributions to the War in the Pacific during WWII. I went to school with Jack and he was a stand up guy even in high school.
Well that’s cool.
Thanks for posting that.
I think he called it his “Stinger”. And unless my memory fails me, I believe it was a machinegun he borrowed from an airplane.
I’m pretty sure he was killed by a spigot mine on Iwo Jima.
He could have played it safe back in the States selling war bonds, resting on his laurels.
mine: mortar round
BFL
Thanks
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