On the US Marine Corps 249th Birthday, We Honor Col Mitchell Paige, USMC And All Marines Passed and Present
By Capt Joseph R. John, November 10, 2024 Op Ed # 699
On November 10, 2024, U.S. Marines around the globe will celebrate 249 years of success on the battlefield and reaffirm their commitment to their Corps' proud legacy of honor, courage, and commitment. This year we will share a video that discusses many interesting historic incidents in the corps—the language is typically rough.
On this special day, we pay homage to a Marine’s Marine who, 82 years ago on October 26, 1942, performed in action above and beyond the call of duty. On Nov. 15, 2003, that 85-year-old retired Marine Corps Colonel died of congestive heart failure at his home in La Quinta, California, southeast of Palm Springs. He was buried with full military honors in the Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, California. He was a Combat Veteran of World War II. Reason enough to honor him. But this Marine was a little different, this Marine was then Platoon Sgt Mitchell Paige, USMC.
It's hard today to envision -- or, for the dwindling few, to remember-- what the world looked like on October 26, 1942. The U.S. Navy was not the most powerful fighting force in the Pacific. Not by a long shot. So the Navy basically dumped a few thousand lonely American Marines on the beach at Guadalcanal and high-tailed it out of there. US Admirals Nimitz, Fletcher and Halsey had to ration what few ships they had.
On Guadalcanal the Marines struggled to complete an airfield. Japanese Navy Admiral 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 counterattacks 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 Browning's, manning their section of the thin khaki line which was expected to defend Henderson Field against the assault of the night of October 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 Japanese attackers?
Nor did the commanders of the mighty Japanese Army, who had swept all before them for decades, expect their advance to be halted on some jungle ridge manned by one thin line of Yanks in khaki in October of 1942. But by the time the night was over, the Japanese 29th Infantry Regiment had lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men, historian Lippman reports. The Japanese 16th Regiment's losses are uncounted, but the [US] 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 in Mitchell Paige's platoon; everyone. 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 Browning's in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned. The citation for Paige's Congressional Medal of Honor picks up the tale: “When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt. Paige, commanding a machine gun 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."
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