Violent But True Bed Time Stories: John Basilone

You know him, you love him, the Marine whose name became synonymous with bodies being stacked high, John Basilone. John Basilone definitely ranks as one of the most famous Marines to ever slay bodies. Machine gunners are drooling right now.

Good old Johnny B. was a caddy before the war kicked off, but he hated that job, it was boring and he probably had to deal with a bunch of rich douchebags. He wanted adventure, so he joined the Army and was stationed in the Philippines. It was an okay time for John, he became a boxing champion nicknamed "Manila John." John still wanted more adventure though and after he was discharged from the Army, he decided to join the Marine Corps to be a world famous body stacker. Guadalcanal sure has a lot of key players that stacked bodies, and John Basilone was one of those key players.

In October 1942, while at Henderson field on Guadalcanal, the Japanese attacked with three thousand men! Utilizing his two machine gun sections of about 15 Marines, John Basilone led the defense and was it a sight to behold. In addition to manning the machine guns and, placing them in proper firing locations, John also ran ammo back and forth between all of the machine guns and fixed any gun that went down. He did all of this while shrapnel and bullets were flying all around him. They continued on for two whole days. Finally, when reinforcements broke through, John was one of only three Marines to have survived. We don't like the word survived, John Basilone thrived and kicked the enemy straight in the teeth.

For having the gigantic brass clankers to do all of that, John was awarded the Medal of Honor. His name is invoked by machine gunners to this very day.