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I'm Staying with My Boys is a firsthand look inside the life of one of the greatest heroes of the Greatest Generation. Sgt. John Basilone held off 3,000 Japanese troops at Guadalcanal after his fifteen-member unit was reduced to three men. At Iwo Jima he single-handedly destroyed an enemy blockhouse, allowing his unit to capture an airfield. Minutes later he was killed by an enemy artillery round. He was the only Marine in World War II to have received the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, and a Purple Heart and is arguably the most famous Marine of all time.
I'm Staying with My Boys is the only family-authorized biography of Basilone. Distinctive among military biographies, the story is told in first person, allowing listeners to experience his transformation, forged in the horrors of battle, from aimless youth to war hero known as Manila John.
About the author
Award-winning author Jim Proser began his professional writing career at age fifteen as a city reporter for the Lambertville Beacon newspaper and as a regional photojournalist for the Bucks County Courier Times. He went on as a journalist to write interviews of business leaders for the Investor's Business Daily. He has written screenplays for film and television producers including 20th Century Fox Television, Showtime Networks, and numerous independent producers. His first novel, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC, was awarded the United States Marine Corps Commandant's Recommendation in 2011. It was used as source material for the HBO television series, The Pacific, and the subsequent documentary film written and directed by Mr. Proser. His second novel, Mr. Copacabana, the biography of his father, creator of the iconic Copacabana nightclub, has been optioned for production as a television series in 2016 by eleven-time Emmy nominated producer Bill D'Elia and is in development as a stage musical.
