Basilone commanded two sections of machine guns which fought for the next two days until only Basilone and two other Marines were left standing. On 24 October 1942, during the Battle for Henderson Field, his unit came under attack by a regiment of about 3,000 soldiers from the Japanese Sendai Division using machine guns, grenades, and mortars against the American heavy machine guns. The Marines sent him to Guantánamo Bay for his next assignment and then to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands as a member of “D” Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. He went to recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, followed by training at Marine Corps Base Quantico and New River.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland.
After driving trucks for a few years, he wanted to go back to Manila and believed he could get there faster by serving in the Marine Corps rather than in the Army.
MEDAL OF HONOR PACIFIC ASSAULT DRILL SERGEANT DRIVER
In the Army, Basilone was initially assigned to the 16th Infantry at Fort Jay, New York, before being discharged for a day, reenlisting, and being assigned to the 31st Infantry.Īfter he was released from active duty, Basilone returned home and worked as a truck driver in Reisterstown, Maryland. Military Service US Armyīasilone enlisted in the United States Army in July 1934 and completed his three-year enlistment with service in the Philippines, where he was a champion boxer. Basilone worked as a golf caddy for the local country club before joining the military. After completing middle school at age 15, he dropped out prior to attending high school. Basilone’s parents met at a church gathering and married three years later.īasilone grew up in the nearby Raritan Town (now Borough of Raritan) where he attended St. Basilone’s mother, Theadora Bencivenga, was born in 1889 and grew up in Manville, New Jersey, but her parents, Carlo and Catrina, also came from Benevento. His father, Salvatore Basilone, emigrated from Colle Sannita, in the province of Benevento, Italy and settled in Raritan. His five older siblings were born in Raritan, New Jersey, before the family moved to Buffalo where John was born they returned to Raritan in 1918. Early Life and Educationīasilone was born in his Italian American parents’ home on 04 November 1916, in Buffalo, New York.
He has received many honours, including having base streets, military facilities, and two United States Navy destroyers named for him. In February 1945, he was killed in action on the first day of the invasion of Iwo Jima, after he single-handedly destroyed an enemy blockhouse and led a Marine tank under fire safely through a minefield. He was one of only three Marines in that group to survive. In October, he and the two machine gun sections under his command held off an attack by a far numerically superior Japanese force. He was deployed to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in August 1942, he took part in the invasion of Guadalcanal. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on 03 June 1940, after serving three years in the United States Army with duty in the Philippines. He was the only enlisted Marine to receive both of these decorations in World War II. John Basilone (04 November 1916 to 19 February 1945) was a United States Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who received the Medal of Honour for heroism above and beyond the call of duty during the Battle for Henderson Field in the Guadalcanal campaign, and the Navy Cross posthumously for extraordinary heroism during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
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