John Iantorno was born on December 25, 1921 in Cleveland, Ohio and attended high school at Poly High in Long Beach, California. On December ll , 1939, John joined the National Guard with his brother Anthony J. Iantomo along with his first cousin Sam Iantomo and second cousin Joe Pizzata nephew to Sam. They were later stationed with the 251st Coast Artillery Battery "H" in Long Beach where they received armory training and drill classes on the 50 caliber machine and anti-aircraft weapons.
After l0 days of truck maneuvers to and from the San Francisco Airport where they were to protect the airport from simulated winter attacks by the United States Navy's 2-wing Hell Diver aircraft, the group was then returned to Long Beach. This was the only National Guard unit to participate in the exercise. Later on, along with 40,OOO other troops, they were deployed for 21 - days neer Chehalis in Washingon State. Up to this time, this was the largest maneuver of its kind in the history of the United States Army.
On the return train trip home, at the station in Santa Barbara... young newsboys were shouting "Extra, Extra... Read AII About It !" On the newspaper's front page were blazed the words "251st A.A.A (auxiliary anti-aircraft) Regiment will be called up to active duty for one-year." On September l6, 1940, this order became "federalized" when historic Executive Order #8530 was signed at the White House by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Commanders in Chief of all Anned Forces.
In October 1940, John was transported on the luxury liner S.S. Washington to Hawaii. His most vivid memory of his arival to the islands was when the ship came around Diamond Head. He remembers his first view of the shoreline of Waikiki Beach with only two hotels on the beach at the time... respectively, Moana Hotel and the Royal Hawaiian.
For approximately 9-months during his time on O'ahu, John was assigned to Barber's Point to assist in building Camp Malakole. Later the camp would be used as a practice range for thousands of troops for A.A.A practice firing. During the time that followed, it seems that any time the United States lost contact with the Japanese Fleet, John and his comrades were ordered back to their gun positions in and around the Pearl Harbor area.
His regiment was ready for action on the morning of December 6, 1941 , but due to poor intelligence, the regiment was told that the Japanese Fleet wge heading towards Fonnosa... current day Taiwan or towards the south China Sea... so the alert was unfortunately called off. Somehow, the entire Japanese 6M Fleet was overlooked and managed to get within a few hundred miles north of the coast of O'ahu. At approximately 7:55 the following Sunday moming on December 7, l941 , two separate waves of nearly 350 Japanese aircraft attacked and nearly destroyed the United States Pacific Fleet of ships and aircraft. The casualties and wounded were in the thousands. The attack soon became known as the single largest military disaster in the history of the United States Navy.
Immediately after the attack, the Marines departed on two destroyer escorts to bolster up the garrisons on Wake and Midway Islands. The 251st would find themselves on the following transports, which included the USS Mormac Star and the USS Mormcac Sea. This regiment became the first to zigzag their way across the submarine infested waters ofthe Pacific to Nadi, Fiji. John admits that the United States Pacific Fleet was in bad shape at that time.
Shortly thereafter, John's regiment was sent to the New Hebrides in the South Pacific to convoy to Guadalcanal. The regiment was sent to help shore up the Marines forces before the first American offensive at Guadalcanal, which was known as "Operation Cartwheel". This historic event became a turning point in the War in the Pacific. Japan's military forces would never advance again. From this time until the end of the were, the United States and her allies would continue to fight and pry Japan's grip from the lands she had previously taken by force. John notes, "The Marines did an absolutely heroic job during the entire 6-months of battle."
Following this was the decisive Battle of Bougainville, the largest ofthe Solomon Islands. Their assignment was to protect, at all cost, a 3 mile by 5-mile perimeter for three fighter ships that were to be used by American escort fighters to escort the bombers from Guadalcanal in their efforts to neutralize Raubal only 200 miles away. Raubal was a large and heavily defended Japanese base Located on the eastern end of New Britain Island and within easy range ofthe American bomber force. John vividly remembers,"...it was a terrible time in my life... it truly was a do or die situation... there was absolutely no retreat."
Initially, the odds were in favor ofthe Japanese Fleet with over 80,000 army troops on Bougainville. John's regiments consisted of two reguler battalions, respectively the 746th and 951st. Along with these regiments were the 37th Ohio National Guard and the Americal Division, (an acronym of America and New Caledonia... which is also an island located in the South Pacific), and noted as the only American division that was not assigned a number. This battle lasted approximately one-yeer in length and casualties on both sides were staggering. From here the battle ran northwards towards the Philippines and other islands that lie in the path of the Japanese homeland.
After the action died down, John and his fellow National Guardsmen were relieved and sent home for approximately 60-days for R & R. Afterwards, John departed for Louisiana for infantry training where he spent approximately 90 days. John would remain in Louisiana guarding German prisoners until the end of the war. Other of his fellow guardsmen would serve time in the European Theater participating in the Battle of the Bulge, while others would be part of the meeting of allied Russian soldiers at the River Elbe in Germany.
In 1946, John's unit assisted in returning Japanese Prisoners of War back home to be reunited with their families. In June of that yeer, John's guard unit, with over 28,800 miles under their belt was cited as the most traveled American National Guard Unit during World War II. A record of 5-years, 8-months, 3- weeks and 2-days of active duty service.
As John says, "I guess in retrospect, we were all young kids back then... it seems that all anyone wanted to do was to get back home in one piece. I can never forget the battles or the thousands of young guys that never made it back home. So many young lives ended in a foxhole.I suppose the tragedy and heartbreak of the whole thing was the horrific sacrifice of innocent life. "
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