On the left center of the action, leading his machine gun platoon in
the 1st Battalion, 27th Marines’ attack against the southern portion
of the airfield, the legendary “Manila John” Basilone fell mortally
wounded by a Japanese mortar shell, a loss keenly felt by all Marines
on the island. Farther east, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Galer, the
other Guadalcanal Medal of Honor Marine (and one of the Pacific War’s
earliest fighter aces), survived the afternoon’s fusillade along the
beaches and began reassembling his scattered radar unit in a deep shell
hole near the base of Suribachi.
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