World War II hero John Basilone's life would have made perfect movie material in the 1940s. John Garfield would have been the ideal choice to play the role, and Warner Bros. the likely studio, considering its reputation at the time for gritty war stories and hard-boiled melodramas. Sadly, to date, no one in Hollywood has embraced the Basilone story, even in today's world thirsting for heroes.

Despite his remarkable military achievements, Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone is known to relatively few people today besides military buffs and thousands of Italian Americans who wrote letters, signed petitions and lobbied the U.S. Postal Service for a Basilone stamp that was released in November 2005. He was the only enlisted Marine in WWII to receive the Navy Cross, the Congressional Medal of Honor, and the Purple Heart in addition to several other citations.

John Basilone was born November 4, 1916, in Buffalo, NY, and raised with nine siblings in Raritan, NJ. He was an undefeated 19-0 light-heavyweight boxer in New Jersey. His father Salvatore was an immigrant tailor from Benevento, near Napoli, and John's mother Dora was from Raritan. Her parents were also from Napoli.

Soon after high school, Basilone joined the Army and served in the Philippine Islands before enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1940. In between the military assignments, he worked as a truck driver in Maryland. During 1940-42, while rising in rank to Corporal and Sergeant, he served in the eastern USA, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the Solomon Islands.

The Marines sent Sgt. Basilone to the Pacific island of Guadalcanal to participate in the ongoing campaign to hold back the Japanese attempts to capture Henderson airfield. Bloodied and humiliated by the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, American armed forces were on the comeback trail. The Marines were determined to keep their small foothold of Henderson, and the Japanese were equally determined to drive them into the sea. The campaign lasted six months, climaxing in a bloody battle October 25, 1942.

Sgt. Basilone was in charge of two sections of heavy machine guns defending a narrow pass to the airfield. He constantly reloaded guns and ran for more ammo in almost total darkness while reassuring his terrified men. There were surprisingly few American casualties in a non-stop, three-day battle, and Basilone was largely credited with helping push the Japanese back. This effort helped turn the tide of the Pacific war for America by denying the enemy the critical Henderson airfield. Basilone earned the admiration of General Douglas MacArthur, who called Basilone "…a one-man army."

When the battle was over and his squad members interviewed, Sgt. Basilone was credited by the men for his will to fight and ability to inspire them. Upon receiving the nation's highest decoration, John Basilone replied modestly, "Only part of this medal belongs to me. Pieces of it belong to the boys who are still on Guadalcanal. It was rough as hell down there." He believed this so strongly that he turned down the opportunity to have President Franklin Roosevelt bestow the Medal of Honor, opting instead to have the ceremony in the field with his unit.

With his hero's status and movie-star good looks, Basilone soon became the U.S. government's war-bonds celebrity stateside, featured in parades, newsreels and print. His picture made the cover of Life magazine. He appeared with Hollywood starlets at rallies where they helped raise more than a million dollars in war-bond pledges.

Basilone blushed when photographers snapped his picture while being kissed by the starlets. He even turned down the bars of a second lieutenant. "I'm a plain soldier," he said, "and I want to stay one." But fame wasn't this young man's dream. Basilone left the limelight for Camp Pendleton, CA, where he later met and married fellow Marine Sgt. Lena Riggi in 1944. The Marine Corps offered to make him an officer and let him spend the rest of the war in Washington, DC. His response: "I ain't no officer, and I ain't no museum piece. I belong back with my outfit." He requested to be sent back to combat, so the Marine Corps dispatched him again to the Pacific.

Basilone was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross and Purple Heart for courageously leading troops February 19, 1945, during the invasion of Iwo Jima. While he and his platoon were pinned down by enemy gunfire, he single-handedly took out an enemy blockhouse with grenades and demolitions, then guided a tank through a minefield while under continuous fire. Unfortunately, Basilone's shining moment was short-lived when he and four others in his platoon died in an artillery blast minutes later.

Sgt. Basilone was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and a life-size bronze statue depicting him in battle, cradling a machine gun, was erected in Raritan. The destroyer USS Basilone, 1949-1982, was named in his honor. A section of U.S. Interstate 5 outside Camp Pendleton is named the John Basilone Memorial Highway. Two bridges in New Jersey bear his name, as does a high school in Raritan. A book about Basilone was written by Jim Proser: "I'm staying with my boys…" The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC.

John Basilone was a hero of conscience and action. His story is almost unbelievable because of his extraordinary fearlessness. He is an enduring inspiration to many Americans. When fellow Marines picked up his dead body to send home, they noticed a tattoo on his left arm: "Death Before Dishonor."