With pride we recall our first story today, of four Honored Marines. Buffalo can cherish its role in this story of duty and honor. Our second story On This Day deals with the depths of depravity of a former all-star running back from Buffalo. If your history appetite is full after our first course today, feel free to desert early (with abandon) from any more news you don’t need about the Juice.
In 2005, the U.S. Postal Service distinguished four very special Marines, one of them from Buffalo, to celebrate a “230-year tradition of excellence in military service to our nation,” said Postmaster General John E. Potter.
Our story of the four Marines begins On This Day, July 13, 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion. U.S. Marine Daniel J. Daly and his small force of Marines defended the U.S. Embassy at Peking from advancing Boxers. When a Captain asked for a volunteer to stand first for cover fire while repairs were made to the fortification, Daly stepped up and said “I’m your man.” He withstood repeated Boxer assaults through the night, earning him the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Another soldier to be so distinguished was John A. Lejeune, whose stamp depicts the insignia of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, which Lejeune commanded during World War I. He is best remembered as a wartime commander after being the first Marine General to command an Army division in combat during World War I.
The third stamp features Lewis B.”Chesty” Puller in Korea in 1950, one of the most famous Marine commanders in history. During the Korean War, his troops were at one time surrounded by over 100,000 Chinese soldiers at the Chosin Reservoir, where Puller is believed to have said: “They’re on our right, they’re on our left, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us; they can’t get away from us this time.”
The fourth and final stamp in the collection pays tribute to Buffalo’s Sergeant John Basilone. He was born in Buffalo, New York, on November 4, 1916 into a West Side Italian family of 10 children. His father, Salvatore Basilone, immigrated from just outside Naples, Italy, and came to the United States at an early age. The Marine hero’s mother, Mrs. Dora Basilone, was born in Raritan, NJ, where the family eventually moved back to. He enlisted in the Army when he was 18, was known as a champion boxer, and in 1940 he joined the Marines. His heroism was almost unmatched, as the story will unfold to show.
His stamp of honor features a 1943 photograph detail of Basilone and the insignia of his 5th Marine Division. Basilone was recognized during World War II for holding an amazing 3,000 Japanese soldiers at bay for an excruciating 72 hours during the battle of Guadalcanal with only 15 men, 12 of whom died. Imagine, a surviving three against 3000! His Marine Citation read:
“For extraordinary heroism while serving as a Leader of a Machine-Gun Section, Company C, 1st Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 19 February 1945.
Shrewdly gauging the tactical situation shortly after landing when his company’s advance was held up by the concentrated fire of a heavily fortified Japanese blockhouse, Gunnery Sergeant Basilone boldly defied the smashing bombardment of heavy caliber fire to work his way around the flank and up to a position directly on top of the blockhouse and then, attacking with grenades and demolitions, single handedly destroyed the entire hostile strong point and its defending garrison.
Consistently daring and aggressive as he fought his way over the battle-torn beach and up the sloping, gun-studded terraces toward Airfield Number 1, he repeatedly exposed himself to the blasting fury of exploding shells and later in the day coolly proceeded to the aid of a friendly tank which had been trapped in an enemy mine field under intense mortar and artillery barrages, skillfully guiding the heavy vehicle over the hazardous terrain to safety, despite the overwhelming volume of hostile fire.
In the forefront of the assault at all times, he pushed forward with dauntless courage and iron determination until, moving upon the edge of the airfield, he fell, instantly killed by a bursting mortar shell. Stouthearted and indomitable, Gunnery Sergeant Basilone, by his intrepid initiative, outstanding skill, and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of the fanatic opposition, contributed materially to the advance of his company during the early critical period of the assault, and his unwavering devotion to duty throughout the bitter conflict was an inspiration to his comrades and reflects the highest credit upon Gunnery Sergeant Basilone and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.” – James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy
Basilone was eventually killed in a shelling attack at Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, at age of 28. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross and Purple Heart. On December 21, 1945, his Hollywood-beautiful young widow, also a soldier, Sgt. Lena Mae Basilone, USMC (WR), christened the destroyer USS Basilone in his honor. Today there are foundations, parades, and even turnpikes named after this hero.
“Ooh! Ah! Sis-Boom-Bah, Buffalo!”
For our second On This Day today, it was on July 13, 1994, that O. J. Simpson, charged with murder, gave hair samples for testing. Thus began the Dark Ages of Journalism in the American O.J. Era of the 1990’s. Forget Osama Bin Laden’s behind scenes planning—the country was addicted to the O.J. Media Era.
O.J. Simpson, star running back, Buffalo Bills icon, everyman’s hero, and a movie star to boot, had a dark, hidden side, which was reported to all too often swagger into a well known Hertel Avenue nightclub bathroom for nightlong toots of cocaine (O.J., if the straw doesn’t fit, you must quit)… He was and is a vehement gutter slug of a lower human who captured America’s attention at every commercial break for news, and every cocktail party on every circuit, all to our disgusting demise of self-respect for what was actually news, whilst other world factions planned a series of plane attacks on our soil. Rome once fiddled too much, and America seemed bent on doing the same to the tune of All “OJ NEWS,” All The Time.
The sorry historical element here isn’t even O.J., but rather all of us who watched and yearned and joked and churned the stories day by day, but especially the news reels that overemphasized focus on such a trial for oh so too long. There may have not been better things going on in the world, but there sure were more dangerous and more important things going on. It was an era of pure and utmost disgrace for anyone attributed to the art and science of journalism.
For me, I got rid of cable and have never returned. And while White House Oval Office ramblings included fine cigars, it was also an era of over-focused headlines about a little dancer named Jon Bonet. If she were my niece, I’d be praying for her to this day, but even Mother Theresa surely noted the overblown focus on such drivel focus on a Denver millionaire’s family scandal. Hearst’s historical Yellow Journalism would have been a deluxe alternative measure for what wrongs filtered our news waves during that almost decade long of “asleep-at-the-wheel” ice age news value.
The 1990’s became a veritable Dark Age when it came to news beyond the coastlines of an America gone Tabloid Sensational. Maybe the smoking gun, or just the cigar, was in our Oval Office, or maybe it was journalism, or maybe it was all of us.
What would McLuhan say? Did the Media meet the Message or did the Mess Age meet the Media? America was veritably deep and away asleep. That was, of course, pre- September 11. Maybe, and hopefully, we’ve changed.
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