One Marine's night on Guadalcanal

[-06]

A HERO like no other!







It Came Downto One Marine



by Vin Suprynowicz



On Nov. 15,2003, an 85-year-old retired Marine Corps Colonel died of



congestive heart failure at his home in La Quinta, Calif., southeast of Palm



Springs.



He was a combat veteran of World War II. Reason enough to honor him. But



this Marine was a little different. This Marine was Mitchell Paige.



On Guadalcanal the Marines struggled to complete an airfield. Yamamoto knew



what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks



from a position that could endanger his ships. Before long, relentless



Japanese counter attacks had driven supporting U.S. Navy from inshore waters.



The Marines were on their own.



As Platoon Sgt. Mitchell Paige and his 33 riflemen set about carefully



emplacing their four water-cooled 30-caliber Brownings, manning their



section of the thin khaki line which was expected to defend Henderson Field



against the assault of the night of Oct. 25, 1942, it's unlikely anyone



thought they were about to provide the definitive answer to that most



desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to



hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated attackers?



But by the time the night was over, "The 29th (Japanese) Infantry Regiment



has lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men,"



historian Lippman reports. "The 16th (Japanese) Regiment's losses are



uncounted, but the 164th's burial parties handled 975 Japanese bodies....



The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low."



You've already figured out where the Japanese focused their attack,haven't



you? Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded that night were all



the men inMitchell Paige's platoon. Every one. As the night of endless



attacks wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and



wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each



of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill



that the positions were still manned.



The citation for Paige's Medal of Honor picks up the tale: When the enemy



broke through the line directly in front of his position, Platoon Sgt.



Paige, commanding a machinegun section with fearless determination,



continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either



killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he



fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving



from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire."



In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed



Brownings --the same design which John Moses Browning famously fired for a



continuous 25 minutes until it ran out of ammunition, glowing cherry red, at



its first U.S. Army trial -- and did something for which the weapon was



never designed. Sgt. Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he



could hear the last Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank,



the belt-fed gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.



And the weapon did not fail.



Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley was



first to discover the answer to our question: How many able-bodied Marines



does it take to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated,



combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat?



On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone



sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn



would bring.



One hill one Marine.



But "In the early morning light, the enemy could be seen a few yards off,



and vapor from the barrels of their machine guns was clearly



visible,"reports historian Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the



position."



For the task, Major Conoley gathered together "three enlisted communication



personnel,several riflemen, a few company runners who were at the point,



together with a cook and a few messmen who had brought food to the position



the evening before."



Joined by Paige, this ad hoc force of 17 Marines counterattacked at 5:40 a.m.,



discovering that "the extremely short range allowed the optimum use of



grenades."They cleared the ridge.



And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested,



broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant



island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal.



But who remembers, today, how close-run a thing it was -- the ridge held by



a single Marine, in the autumn of 1942?



When the Hasbro Toy Co. called some years back, asking permission to put the



retired colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must



be joking.



But they weren't. That's his mug, on the little Marine they call "G.I. Joe."



And now you know........



GOD BLESS THE USA!

[Tucker's Mom]

Wow!!! That was a long but rewarding read. Bless his soul. And thank God for all the soldiers and vets that kept and keep this country safe.

[walt629]

I never knew. And I grew up with GI Joe! The symbol of a Real American Hero. All the advertising 'hype' was real! Wow.

[Hoganbeg]

Wow indeed! What an inspiring story.

[jethrodull]

thank you for posting that.
J