Alfio Bastiani

Alfio Bastiani was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He worked as a busboy while attending high school, and enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of twenty-one.

After training at MCRD San Diego and serving with Service Company, Camp Elliott, Private Bastiani was assigned to H&S Company, 14th Marines. He was given the position of antiaircraft machine gunner – crewing a heavy .50-caliber weapon to protect the artillery pieces of his regiment from air attacks. He participated in all four of the Fourth Marine Division’s combat landings, and rose to the rank of corporal shortly before the battle of Iwo Jima.

On July 23, 1945, Bastiani joined Company A, 24th Marines. His experience with antiaircraft MGs made him a natural choice to lead a machine gun squad; he was serving with the MG platoon when Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945. The following month, Bastiani received a commendation from the Fourth Marine Division, returned to Chicago, and was honorably discharged from the service.

Bastiani returned to the Marine Corps in 1951, and went to Korea with the 7th Marines. However, his second tour was not as successful as his first; Bastiani was thrown in the brig for an unknown offense, and was discharged in 1953 as a private.

He died in Chicago in 1999, and is buried in All Saints Cemetery, Des Plains, Illinois.