Raritan Borough is about 4,325 miles away from Italy but a common connection — a World War II hero named John Basilone — now ties the Somerset County town and a small Italian community even ...

But John Basilone could not turn down the corners of his mouth, and he spent a week on K.P. He had both his arms tattooed : a woman on the right, and an unsheathed sword on the left, with the ...

John Basilone didn’t have to return to combat. After he earned the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II’s Battle of Guadalcanal, Basilone was ordered back to the United States ...