by Hugh Ambrose
13 Finn, Winners in Peace.
14 Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1964), pp. 282-283.
15 Frank and Shaw, Marine Corps Operations in World War II: Vol. V, p. 492.
16 Scout Article; USS Basilone Commissioning Ceremony Program, RPL; Lena Basilone Service File, NRC.
17 Shofner, "WWII Memories," p. 73, stated that this meeting took place in 1943. Coach Neyland, however, served overseas during the war and thus this important meeting could have taken place only in 1946.
18 Bob Gilbert, Neyland: The Gridiron General (Savannah, Georgia: Golden Coast Publishing Co., 1990).
19 "Houston-Phillips Wedding of Interest," undated clipping from unidentified newspaper, Sidney Phillips Collection.
20 J. Robert Moskin, The U.S. Marine Corps Story (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1977).
21 Tom Bartlett, "Against All Odds," Leatherneck, June 1976, vol. 59, #6, pp. 39-41.
22 Kay Rose, "New Plaque Honors Shofner," Shelbyville Times-Gazette, May 5, 2003, p. 1, courtesy of Col. Otto Melsa.
23 Sledge, China Marine, p. 154.
24 Sledge to Stumpy and Valton, December 3, 1980, SCAU.
25 Sledge to Stanley, February 6, 1980, SCAU; Sledge to Hank Boyes, July 25, 1979, SCAU; Sledge to Walter McIlhenny, May 31, 1977, SCAU.
26 Sledge, China Marine, p. 135.
27 Dr. Sidney Phillips interview, author's collection.
28 Jeanne Sledge e-mail to author, 2008, author's collection.
29 KPI.
30 Sledge to Stumpy and Valton, December 3, 1980, SCAU.
31 Sledge to Stanley, January 16, 1984, SCAU. It is clear that Sledge did not have access to the 3/5 Record or the 3rd Bn SAR cited frequently here. When he saw the former document years later, it disgusted him.
32 The story of Hiroo Onoda was taken from an entry of www.wikipedia.com.
33 Sledge to Stanley, January 16, 1984, SCAU.
34 Jeanne Sledge interview, May 2004, Playtone Collection.
35 Sledge to Stumpy and Valton, December 3, 1980, SCAU.
36 Lieutenant Kasky (CO of C-1-27), April 24, 1945, Basilone USMC Service File, NRC.
37 Scout Article.
38 Carlo Basilone to Gen. A. A. Vandegrift, April 12, 1946, Basilone Personnel File; A. A. Vandegrift to Mrs. John Basilone, September 29, 1947, Basilone USMC Personnel File; "World War II Hero's Sister Dies in Somerville Car Accident," Newark Star-Ledger, November 15, 2003, RPL; photograph of the funeral at Arlington, Basilone Family Collection; Ed Sullivan, "Little Old New York," undated column in unidentified newspaper, RPL.
39 "Raritan to Unveil Statue of Basilone; Parade Set," Courier News, June 4, 1948; "Dedicate Statue of Basilone," June 7, 1948, clipping from unidentified Newark, New Jersey, newspaper, RPL.
40 USS Basilone Commissioning Ceremony Program, RPL.
41 "Meets His Family," undated clipping from unidentified newspaper, Basilone Family Collection.
42 Herbert Lansner, "Chance Call for Taxi Reunites Widow, Hero Husband's Pals," undated clipping from unidentified newspaper, Basilone Family Collection.
43 "Her Hero Husband Didn't Come Back," Newark Star-Ledger, May 28, 1950, Basilone Family Collection.
44 "A Family Look at Hero John Basilone," South Plainfield Observer, February 11, 1988, p. 9, RPL.
45 Jim G. Lucas, "Medal of Honor Winner Rejected a Hero's Life for a Hero's Death," New York World-Telegram , 1962, Basilone Family Collection; Robert Leckie, "The Perfect Marine Who Begged to Die," Saga Magazine, 1964, courtesy of Robert Leckie Family.
46 "How School Kids Started Parade in '81," Forbes Newspaper Supplement, September 19, 1990, RPL.
47 Lena Basilone Interview, Scout Article.
a
The reader's convenience, not military practice, guides the nomenclature used here to identify military units.
b
Formosa is now known as Taiwan.
c
The officer in command of the USMC defense battalion and the USMC fighter squadron, Commander Winfield S. Cunningham, sent a list of his supply and reinforcement needs. Most historians believe the quote above was "padding" added to the message to make it more difficult for the enemy to decode.
d
Of the roughly 1,200 officers and men of the Fourth Marines who fought for Luzon, 357 were listed as wounded in action and 331 either were killed in action, died of wounds, or were missing and presumed dead.
e
The IJN had no carrier named Ryukaku. The U.S. had sunk the Shoho.
f
All of these claims of ships sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea were highly inflated.
g
Most histories of the Battle of Midway have used a standardized time because they are covering all aspects of a battle taking place across several time zones. The times given here were those of Ensign Micheel's ship and therefore, presumably, of his wristwatch.
h
The Enterprise's YE/ZB transmitter was switched on and functioning.
i
U.S. Navy pilots reported seeing and/or dogfighting Japanese flying the Me-109 or other German-made aircraft with some regularity. These reports were inaccurate.
j
These estimates of Japanese losses were widely inflated. The Imperial Japanese Navy lost four carriers (Kaga, Akagi, Soryu, and Hiryu), as well as one cruiser, Mikuma. Estimates of her casualties have run as low as 2,500 men. By contrast, the United States lost two ships, Yorktown and Hamman (DD-412), and about 340 men.
k
The Harvey House was a well-known chain of restaurants situated near railroad stations. The CCC was the Civilian Conservation Corps, which offered work for unemployed men from 1933 to 1942. It focused primarily on the conservation and improvement of natural resources.
l
R.A.F. stands for the Royal Air Force of Great Britain. Its Spitfires had beaten the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain.
m
Historians refer to the Battle of Hell's Point as the Battle of the Tenaru.
n
Amelia Earhart, a pioneer in aviation and holder of the Distinguished Flying Cross, disappeared in 1937 somewhere over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to circumnavigate the globe.
o
This carrier battle came to be called the Battle of Santa Cruz.
p
This battle is known as the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
q
The First Marine Regiment landed with 136 officers and 2,937 enlisted personnel, not counting its medical team. Three officers and 30 enlisted men were killed; 3 officers and 41 were wounded. Like its parent division, the First lost a much greater number of men to disease, especially malaria.
r
Listed alphabetically, the men who attempted it were: Lieutenant Leo Boelens (Army); Lieutenant Michael Dobervich (USMC); Captain William Dyess (U.S. Army Air Corps); Lieutenant Samuel Grashio (Air Corps); Lieutenant Jack Hawkins (USMC); Corporal Paul Marshall (Air Corps); Lieutenant Commander Melvyn McCoy (Navy); Major Stephen Mellnik (Army); Captain Austin Shofner (USMC); Sergeant Robert Spielman (Army).
s
During World War II both official and unofficial accounts referred to the "winners of the Medal of Honor." Since the war the men who wear it have mounted a concerted effort to change it to the "recipients of the Medal of Honor." The Congressional Medal of Honor, they believe, is not a prize won in a contest.
t
A Seabee was a member of a navy construction battalion and took his name from the unit's initials, CB.
u
WAC stands for Women's Auxiliary Corps, which was connected to the army.
v
The dominant country of the Axis alliance, Adolf Hitler's Germany, decided to prevent the Allied powers from seizing Italy, so the war there would continue.
w
Into the Valley by John Hersey was published in February 1943. It detailed the Third Battle of the Matanikau, in which Chesty Puller's Seventh Marines (led by the mari
nes of Basilone's Charlie Company) won their first clear victory. Richard Tregaskis's Guadalcanal Diary was also published in 1943.
x
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson became one of the most revered Confederate generals of the American Civil War, renowned for his brilliant military tactics.
y
The victory became known later as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, phase one in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. As in all air combat, the number of kills was overstated. In this battle, though, the size of the victory was not.
z
The 3rd Battalion of a regiment in the Marine Corps did not have a Company J, reputedly because in the days of handwritten messages, J could be confused with I.
aa
A popular acronym in all branches of the U.S. armed services in World War II, SNAFU stood for "Situation Normal, All Fouled Up." the Canal fascinated Burgin. King Company, however, had only a few men like Marmet and fewer still of "the Old Breed," or the men who had been in the corps before the war. Eugene Sledge, in turn, looked up to Snafu and "Burgie" because they had served on Cape Gloucester.
ab
That day, September 11, 1944, Admiral Halsey sent a recommendation to Admiral Nimitz that the invasion of Mindanao be canceled. On September 14, with General MacArthur's approval, a new strategic plan was approved, calling for the army to bypass Mindanao and invade Leyte on October 20.
ac
The Fifth Regiment landed with 3,227 men and officers. It sustained about 250 casualties during D-day and D + 1, the highest two- day total of the regiment during the campaign.
ad
Micheel's briefing did not include any warning about the fact that Japan was shipping thousands of U.S. POWs back to its home islands in unmarked ships. The navy brass may not have apprehended the situation in September 1944. Even if they had, they could not have ordered their pilots to stop destroying all Japanese shipping.
ae
A unit of fire is the amount of ammunition needed to sustain a marine's weapon (carbine, 60mm mortar, whatever) for one day of heavy combat.
af
The chain of islands that includes Okinawa was a recognized part of Japan long before World War II. The episode described here attests to the complicated relationship between the "Japanese" from Okinawa and the Japanese of the "home islands." the wilds of Peleliu.368 Relieving the 2/5 in their positions--the terrain forbade anything resembling a front line--took great care. Love Company had to make its way the farthest east, to the tip of Hill 140, before turning to face south. Love's left flank was secured by the hill's vertical cliff face. King moved on to Hill 140 to secure Love's right flank, with Item on King's right flank as the 3/5 prepared to push southward.
ag
Although not made public at the time, General MacArthur agreed with Shofner that General Krueger's assault lacked speed and aggressiveness.
ah
Sledge was referring to the Presidential Unit Citation. The 1st Marine Division had indeed been awarded this distinction for Peleliu, as it had for the Battle of Guadalcanal.
ai
The intelligence estimates given to the marines aboard ship were wrong. The Japanese had reinforced Iwo Jima with roughly twenty-two thousand men.
aj
Shofner's memo traveled beyond the commander of the 37th Division and above the Fourteenth Corps' commander to the intelligence staff of General Walter Krueger's Sixth Army. These were the men who planned the raid. His memo arrived on their desks two days before local guerrilla leaders told them that the Japanese camp guards were likely to murder all of the POWs before the camps were overrun. Shifty's memo, therefore, helped to inspire the mission that has come to be known as the Great Raid.
ak
At ten forty-two a.m. the Twenty-seventh Regiment HQ radioed this message: "All units pinned down by artillery and mortars. Casualties heavy. Need tank support fast to move anywhere."
al
Naha was Okinawa's largest city.
am
In his memoirs, Sidney Phillips capitalized the word "Marine," as many proud marines do. It is not a convention observed by historians.
an
Leatherneck magazine was created within the Marine Corps in 1917, which made it semiautonomous in 1943. Its mission is to celebrate the United States Marine Corps.
ao
Historians have since debated the wisdom and the necessity of America's two-prong drive to Japan.
ap
Peiping is now known as Beijing, Tientsin is Tianjin, and Chingwangtao is now spelled Qinhuangdao.
aq
Translated from the Latin, Semper Fidelis means "Always Faithful." It is the motto of the United States Marine Corps. In World War II the shortened version "Semper Fi" was often used by marines who were not of a mind to grant a request made by a fellow marine, or as Sledge used it above.
ar
Of the 1,343 marines who surrendered on Corregidor and Bataan, 490 did not live to see their freedom won, according to the USMC's official history of its operations in World War II. When included in with all of the POWs taken by the Japanese (the largest group being from the U.S. Army), the fatality rate dropped significantly. The chances of survival, however, were much lower than that of the U.S. POWs in Germany.