Manila John

The Kid from Raritan

John Basilone was born in Buffalo, New York, on November 4, 1916 — the sixth of ten children in an Italian-American family. They moved back to Raritan, New Jersey, when he was two. He quit school after middle school to caddy at the local country club. At seventeen, he enlisted in the Army.

The Army sent him to the Philippines, where he boxed competitively and earned the nickname “Manila John.” He loved the islands — the heat, the people, the life. When his enlistment ended in 1937, he came home, drove trucks for a few years, and then joined the Marine Corps specifically because he thought they’d send him back to the Pacific faster than the Army would.

He was right. But the Pacific he returned to was on fire.

Henderson Field — October 24, 1942

Guadalcanal was hell. The Marines had seized Henderson Field — the only operational airstrip in the southern Solomons — and the Japanese wanted it back with everything they had. On the night of October 24, a regiment of 3,000 soldiers from the elite Sendai Division came out of the jungle straight at the Marine perimeter.

Sergeant Basilone commanded two sections of heavy water-cooled M1917 Browning machine guns in Dog Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, under the legendary Lieutenant Colonel Chesty Puller. His guns were the thin line between Henderson Field and disaster.

The Japanese attacked in waves. Not probing attacks — full regimental assaults, men screaming, bayonets fixed, pouring out of the treeline into withering machine gun fire. The Brownings cut them down in rows. But they kept coming. And they kept coming.

Two Nights in the Dark

The battle raged for two full nights. By dawn of the first night, most of the machine gunners around Basilone were dead or wounded. Ammunition was running critically low. The supply lines had been cut by Japanese troops who had infiltrated behind the Marine positions.

Basilone did what no sane person would do: he fought his way through enemy-held ground to the ammo dumps and hauled belts of .30-caliber ammunition back to his guns. Not once. Multiple times. Through jungle in the dark, with Japanese soldiers everywhere.

Back at his position, he moved an additional machine gun into the line, repaired another that had jammed, and kept every working gun firing. When a gun went down, he fixed it. When a position was overrun, he moved to it. He was everywhere at once — a one-man fire direction center.

The ammunition ran out entirely before dawn on the second day. Basilone drew his .45 pistol and pulled out his machete. He fought hand-to-hand in the darkness until the Japanese assault finally broke.

When it was over, the area in front of Basilone’s position was carpeted with enemy dead. Of the Marines in his section, only three had survived. The Sendai Division’s attacking regiment had been virtually annihilated.

The War Bond Hero

For his actions at Henderson Field, Basilone received the Medal of Honor from President Roosevelt. He was sent home to sell war bonds.

He hated it.

Manila John was a machine gunner, not a salesman. He traveled the country, appeared at rallies, posed with movie stars like Virginia Grey and John Garfield. His hometown of Raritan threw him a parade that drew thousands and made national news in Life magazine. Women wanted to marry him. The Marine Corps offered him a commission as an officer. He turned it down. They offered him a cushy instructor posting. He turned that down too.

He wanted to go back to the war. The Marine Corps told him no — he was more valuable selling bonds. He kept asking. He kept refusing the safe assignments. Finally, they let him go.

He married Sergeant Lena Mae Riggi — a Marine herself — on July 10, 1944, at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Church in Oceanside, California. Five months later, he shipped out for Iwo Jima.

Red Beach — February 19, 1945

D-Day at Iwo Jima was a slaughter. The Japanese had spent months fortifying the island with thousands of interconnected bunkers, tunnels, and pillboxes. They let the Marines land, waited until the beaches were packed, and then opened up with everything.

Gunnery Sergeant Basilone landed with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division. His unit was pinned down on Red Beach under murderous fire from a Japanese blockhouse — a reinforced concrete bunker pouring machine gun and mortar fire into the Marines on the black volcanic sand.

Basilone didn’t wait for orders. He led his heavy weapons squad off the beach and around the blockhouse. Moving under fire that was killing Marines all around him, he got close enough to attack the position directly. He destroyed the blockhouse — and the men inside it — opening a lane off the beach for the Marines stacked up behind him.

Then he spotted a Marine tank that had gotten lost in a minefield, the crew trapped and helpless under fire. Basilone moved into the minefield himself and guided the tank safely through to the airfield.

Minutes later, a Japanese mortar round landed near him. Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone was killed instantly. He was 28 years old.

Legacy

Manila John was the only enlisted Marine in World War II to receive both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Marine Corps named a road at Camp Pendleton, a building at Camp Lejeune, and the parade deck at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island after him. Two Navy destroyers have carried his name: USS Basilone (DD-824) and USS Basilone (DDG-122). His hometown of Raritan holds an annual parade in his honor every September.

He could have stayed home. He had the Medal of Honor. He had a new wife. He had a guaranteed safe posting for the rest of the war. He chose to go back because his Marines were still fighting and he wasn’t the kind of man who could sit that out.

That’s who Manila John Basilone was.