Peter Michael Gish Oil Painting of John Basilone

In 1942, on a black October night in the steaming jungles of Guadalcanal, the Marine sergeant had single-handedly wiped out a company of Japanese trying to overrun his position on the Tenaru River. With a Colt .45 pistol and two machine guns - one cradled in his arms after the other was knocked out - he stopped a screaming banzai attack and held out until dawn, when reinforcements came up. Nearly a hundred enemy dead were sprawled around his cut-off outpost.

His name was John Basilone, an Italian American from Raritan, New Jersey. Basilone was one of the first heroes of World War II, and the first enlisted Marine to receive the Medal of Honor. He was brought back to the United States to much acclaim - rallies were held in his honor and he was given a $5,000 war bond. He was offered a promotion to second lieutenant but turned it down. I'm a plain soldier, he said, and I want to stay one. He could have remained stateside training troops and selling was bonds. Instead, he said farewell to his new wife and went back overseas.

February, 19, 1945. Iwo Jima. At the head of another machine gun squad, Basilone led his troops over the beaches of black sand. The invasion was ninety minutes old and the Marines were under a withering fire. An incoming mortar sounded its eerie warning; then a shattering blast. Basilone lunged forward in midstride, arms flung over his head. He and four comrades died in that instant. On his outstretched left arm was a tattoo: Death before Dishonor! For his leadership he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

Author/Pastor Bill D. Ross, Adapted By Rev. David Holwick