Tag Archives: USS Basilone (DD-824/DE-824)

Navy Revisiting Heritage and Tradition this week

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Two ship commissionings in the news show some decent salutes to those who have sailed into history in days prior.

In New York on Saturday– one day shy of the USMC’s 249th birthday– the Navy commissioned the second destroyer to carry the name of GySgt John Basilone, DDG-122.

Why New York? Basilone was born in Buffalo and grew up in Raritan, New Jersey, just 45 minutes away from the Big Apple.

During Basilone’s service on Guadalcanal, he led two machine gun sections of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, where he used his detachment’s M1917 water-cooled Browning machine guns and an M1911 .45 Government Issue pistol to great effect to break up a Japanese charge of some 3,000 Japanese against his emplacement. The feat earned him the nation’s highest military decoration and was depicted in 2010’s “The Pacific.”

His Medal of Honor citation, from his public file in the National Archives:

Basilone. He was posthumously honored with a Navy Cross for his actions on Iwo Jima, making him the only enlisted Marine in WWII to earn both of the service’s two highest honors.

In 1945, the Navy named a destroyer after Basilone, and in 1948, a life-sized statue of him was installed in his enlistment hometown of Raritan, New Jersey.

The new USS John Basilone’s battle flag includes a pair of crossed M1917s inside the Blue Diamond shoulder patch of the 1st Marine Division.

The Battle Flag is on the portside yardarm. (Photo: General Dynamics)

As detailed by the Navy, “These words characterize the life and service of Gunnery Sergeant Basilone, honor his legacy, and charge future generations of Selfless Warriors to sharpen their spears, take a stand, and move forward.” (Photo: General Dynamics)

Once commissioned, the USS Basilone will be part of the Atlantic Fleet. If she has anything like the service life shown in the rest of her class, she will only retire around 2064.

‘Old Ironsides’ Assist

Meanwhile, up the coast from NYC in Boston, the 27th Littoral Combat Ship, the future USS Nantucket (LCS-27) is set to commission on 16 November at the historic Charlestown Navy Yard. The 14th Freedom-variant is the fifth navy warship to honor “the rich heritage of the people of Nantucket and the maritime legacy that the island represents.”

The first was a Civil War-era Passaic-class monitor known for giving hard service at Charleston and Morris Island while the second and third served in the Great War on coastal service.

The monitor USS Nantucket, seen in her post-war configuration. Loaned to the North Carolina Naval Militia in 1895, she was somewhat fancifully recommissioned for Spanish-American War service and only sold for scrapping in 1900. NH 66760-A.

The fourth, a 177-foot steel-hulled Alert-class gunboat (PG-23) commissioned in 1876, carried the name Nantucket as a training ship for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy from 1918 through 1942.

USS Nantucket (PG-23), formerly USS Ranger and USS Rockport, was then loaned to the State of Massachusetts for use at Massachusetts Nautical School. Courtesy of Mr. Gershone Bradford. NH 500

Fittingly, PCU Nantucket (LCS-27) is tied up near the USS Constitution this week as she awaits entrance to the fleet.

Welcome, USS John Basilone

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Over the weekend, Bath Iron Works in Maine hosted the christening of the USS John Basilone (DDG-122), a late-batch Burke-class destroyer, with Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Troy Black delivering the ceremony’s principal address.

Basilone via General Dynamics Bath Iron Works

The warship was transitioned to launch over a three-day period last week.

Who was Basilone?

Born in Buffalo, New York in November 1916, John (no middle name) Basilone, Roman Catholic, son of Salvatore and Dora Basilone, had done his bit for his country prior to World War II. He had served in the Regular Army from 5 February 1936 to 7 September 1939 and was still in the Army Reserves (3rd Corps) from which he had to petition the force for a discharge to join the Marines, a move that was approved 11 July 1940.

His civilian job listed on intake to the Corps was that of a truck driver.

Via Basilone’s 327-page file at the NARA

His Navy physical, when he joined the Marines, listed in addition to several minor scars and burns, two tattoos on his biceps. On his right, the “bust of a western woman.” On the left, a sword and the words “Death Before Dishonor.”

By September 1940, newly-promoted PFC Basilone was standing tall and would make Corporal the following May before grabbing his third stripe as a Sergent on 23 January 1942, just six weeks after Pearl Harbor.

Less than nine months later, SGT Basilone would become a legend for his actions at Guadalcanal.

Medal of Honor citation:

“For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action against enemy Japanese forces, above and beyond the call of duty, while serving with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division in the Lunga Area. Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 24 and 25 October 1942. While the enemy was hammering at the Marines’ defensive positions, Sgt. Basilone, in charge of 2 sections of heavy machine guns, fought valiantly to check the savage and determined assault.

In a fierce frontal attack with the Japanese blasting his guns with grenades and mortar fire, one of Sgt. Basilone’s sections, with its guncrews, were put out of action, leaving only 2 men able to carry on. Moving an extra gun into position, he placed it in action, then, under continual fire, repaired another and personally manned it, gallantly holding his line until replacements arrived.

A little later, with ammunition critically low and the supply lines cut off, Sgt. Basilone, at great risk of his life and in the face of continued enemy attack, battled his way through hostile lines with urgently needed shells for his gunners, thereby contributing in large measure to the virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment. His great personal valor and courageous initiative were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.”

His battlefield promotion to Platoon Sergent was signed by Lt. Col Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller, 1st Bn, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, FMF, in November 1942.

Basilone has long been a Marine Corps icon, and his actions on 24/25 Oct 1942 were recreated in The Pacific.

Basilone could have sat out the war and signed War Bonds and taken pictures for the cameras back home, which he did for a minute, but he voluntarily returned to action at the Battle of Iwo Jima in February of 1945, where he single-handedly destroyed an enemy blockhouse and led a Marine tank under fire safely through a minefield. He was killed in action later that day and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his unwavering devotion and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice.

He was the only enlisted Marine to receive both decorations in World War II.

On June 6, 1948, the John Basilone American Legion Post in Raritan dedicated the life-size statue of Basilone holding a water-cooled M1917 Browning machine gun.

The statue was sculpted by childhood friend Phillip Orlando. (New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs photo by Mark C. Olsen)

This is the second ship to honor Basilone. The first, USS Basilone (DD-824/DE-824), was a Gearing-class destroyer sponsored by his widow, a stern-faced Sergeant Lena Mae Basilone, USMC(WR). That destroyer remained in service from 1945 to 1977.

It is about time the Navy has another USS John Basilone on the Navy List.