IV

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 4

Expressing the sense of the Congress that a commemorative postage stamp

should be issued honoring Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, a great

American hero.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 3, 2001

Mr. PASCRELL submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was

referred to the Committee on Government Reform

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress that a commemorative

postage stamp should be issued honoring Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, a great American hero.

Whereas Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone was born in 1916

in Buffalo, New York, son of Salvatore and Dora

Basilone, one of 10 children;

Whereas John Basilone was raised and educated in Raritan,

New Jersey;

Whereas, at the age of 18, John Basilone enlisted in the

United States Army, principally seeing garrison service in

the Philippines;

Whereas, after his honorable discharge in 1937, Sergeant

Basilone, known by his comrades as ‘‘Manila John’’, returned to Raritan;
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Whereas, seeing the storm clouds of war hovering over the

Nation, and believing that his place was with this country’s fighting forces, Sergeant Basilone enlisted in the

United States Marine Corps in July 1940;

Whereas, on October 24 and 25, 1942, on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, Sergeant Basilone was a member of ‘‘C’’

Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, and was in charge of 2 sections of heavy machine

guns defending a narrow pass that led to Henderson Airfield;

Whereas, although Sergeant Basilone and his machine gunners were vastly outnumbered and without available reinforcements, Sergeant Basilone and his fellow Marines

fought valiantly to check the savage and determined assault by the Japanese Imperial Army;

Whereas, for this action, Sergeant Basilone was awarded the

Congressional Medal of Honor and sent home a hero;

Whereas, in December 1944, Sergeant Basilone’s restlessness

to rejoin his fellow Marines, who were fighting the bloody

island-to-island battles en route to the Philippines and

Japan, prompted him to volunteer again for combat;

Whereas, on Iwo Jima, on February 19, 1945, Sergeant

Basilone again distinguished himself by single-handedly

destroying an enemy blockhouse while braving heavy-caliber fire;

Whereas, minutes later, an artillery shell killed Sergeant

Basilone and 4 of his platoon members;

Whereas Sergeant Basilone was posthumously awarded the

Navy Cross and Purple Heart, and a life-sized bronze

statue stands in Raritan, New Jersey, where ‘‘Manila
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John’’ is clad in battle dress and cradles a machine gun

in his arms;

Whereas, in 1949, the United States Government commissioned a destroyer the U.S.S. Basilone, and in November

1951, Governor Alfred E. Driscoll posthumously awarded

Sergeant Basilone the State of New Jersey’s highest

decoration;

Whereas, following World War II, Sergeant Basilone’s remains were reinterred in the Arlington National Cemetery;

Whereas Sergeant Basilone was the first recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor awarded in World War II;

Whereas Sergeant Basilone was also awarded the Navy Cross

and the Purple Heart, giving him the distinction of being

the only enlisted Marine in World War II to receive all

3 medals; and

Whereas commemorative postage stamps have been commissioned to honor other great heroes in American history:

Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that—

3 (1) a commemorative postage stamp should be

4 issued by the United States Postal Service honoring

5 Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone; and

6 (2) the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee

7 should recommend to the Postmaster General that

8 such a stamp be issued.

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