Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

The first serious biography of Medal of Honor winner Manila John Basilone is also, sadly, Brady's last book. He died immediately after completing it, having done his work well. Basilone came from a blue-collar Italian family in New Jersey and had served in the army in the Philippines before the war. For World War II, he joined the marines and won the Medal of Honor as a machine-gunner on Guadalcanal. Sent home as a celebrity for a bond tour, he found his new status a burden and repeatedly tried to get back into combat. Before he did, he married a fellow marine, but what promised to be a highly successful marriage was cut tragically short when Basilone was killed in action on the first day on Iwo Jima. Brady has ferreted out and interviewed practically all the survivors of those who knew Basilone, critiqued most of the previous accounts (sometimes scathingly) on the basis of his own experience as a marine, and generally left us one good marine's tribute to another.--Green, Roland Copyright 2010 Booklist