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"For the Other Day. . . ." Not until the following June did his family hear from him again. Then came a letter on cheap note paper, in John's schoolboy hand: "I am very happy for the other day I received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award you can receive in the arm forces. . . . Tell Pop his son is still tough. Tell Don thanks for the prayer they say in school for us. . . ."
On a bright September Sunday of 1943, John Basilone got his welcome home. At the estate of Doris Duke Cromwell, 30,000 assembled to greet Hero John—mayors, judges, ex-Governors and ex-Senators, and a movie star with upswept hairdo, who kissed John Basilone on the mouth. His picture stood in all the shop windows, alongside General MacArthur's. A portrait of John Basilone was hung in Town Hall.
John got a $5,000 war bond, and went off on a Treasury-conducted war bond tour. Marine officers who accompanied him found that Sergeant Basilone was still steady, modest about his honors, anxious to get back to his outfit.
"I'm becoming a museum piece," he said. "And what if some marines should land on Dewey Boulevard and Manila John isn't among them?"
Offered a chance at a commission, he turned it down. "I'm a plain soldier—I want to stay one."
When the first waves of marines went ashore on Iwo Jima, Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone was there, commanding an assault team of the 27th Regiment, 5th Division. By noon Medal-of-Honorman Basilone had his outfit on the edge of Motoyama airfield. There he met the shell that had his number on it. By nightfall John Basilone, a good marine, was dead.