John Basilone Distinguish Marine North Branch Supplemental Issue

by Scott Pelcyger

figure 1 Cover of Program (distributed with and without ribbon and pin)  

November 17th I received a call from Secretary-treasurer John Peterson asking me if I was going to the supplemental ceremony for the John Basilone issue.  Although I am an avid program collector I don't typically relish the idea of sitting through speeches and traveling to a ceremony.  This is especially true when the ceremony is an hour away and starts at 9:30 on a Saturday morning.  However, having been told of the ceremony I felt obligated to go.  I woke early on one of the few Saturdays I have off and drove to North Branch, NJ.  After seeing all the former active duty  marines and other veterans, being   ex Navy  I was glad I went.  The ceremony was very well run and the USPS contact person, Kimberly Krause couldn't have been more helpful.  We were given a ticket on arrival to the auditorium and a program on entering.   The Trenton Brass Quartet Plus 1 played patriotic music and set the "tone" for the event.  Raritan Valley Community College President Dr. G. Jeremiah Ryan smoothly ran the ceremony as the MC.  Four active duty marines started the ceremony with three of them reading the impressive biographies of the marines being honored on the postage stamps.  I didn't realize that anyone had ever won two congressional medals of honor, but one of the marines being honored, Sgt. Major Daniel Joseph Daly not only won 2 of this nations highest military honor, but survived to serve an additional 14 years in the marines before retiring.   The fourth said a few words about the marine corps, having recently returned from Iraq.  John  Basilone's accomplishments were recounted by John Pacifico who started the campiagn to have Basilone recognized on a postage stamp.  Former Governor and EPA Secretary Christine Todd Whitman, Congressmen Rodney Frelinghuysen and Bill Pascrell, Jr. all gave brief but meaningful remarks for the occasion.   While there was no signing table, some of the participants stays for  a few minutes and generously signed programs and other memorabilia for the few people who requested them to.

After listening to all the remarks I realized why the USPS used the self adhesive format for the Distinguished Marines stamps, they apparently realized that you simply cannot lick a marine.

  Figure 2 inside of program autographed by 4 dignitaries