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Mitchell Paige, WWII Medal of Honor recipient, dies at age 85
Associated Press 11/17/03

LA QUINTA, Calif. - Mitchell Paige, a retired marine colonel who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism in World War II's Battle of Guadalcanal, has died. He was 85.

Paige, whose family said was the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the historic ground battle, died at his home in La Quinta on Saturday from congestive heart failure, said family spokesman Michael Landes. He had long suffered from heart problems.

"I called him my husband, my sweetheart and my hero, as well as my friend," his wife, Marilyn Paige, said. "When I met him I said 'You must be where the name gentleman comes from.' He was very unassuming and yet willing to stand up for what he believed."

On Oct. 26, 1942, Paige was leading a platoon of 33 men when the Japanese broke through the line directly in front of his position at Guadalcanal, part of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific Ocean.

With all the men in his machine gunner group killed or wounded, he continued to fire on advancing troops until reinforcements arrived. He then led a bayonet charge and drove the enemy's line back.

A few weeks after the battle, Maj. Gen. A. A. Vandergrift, commander of the First Marine Division and later commandant of the Marine Corps, commended Paige: "Son, that was an important hill that you and your men held. It was the last major Japanese effort to dislodge us and capture the airstrip."

Paige was given a battlefield promotion to second lieutenant and was one of 440 Medal of Honor recipients in World War II, although 250 were honored posthumously.

After the war, he wrote a book, "A Marine Named Mitch," and later served as the model for a GI Joe Marine Doll.

Earlier this year, Paige was awarded his Eagle Scout badge 67 years after skipping the ceremony for a career in the Marine Corps. He also was involved in a number of veterans causes and worked to catch Medal of Honor impostors.

The son of Serbian immigrants, Paige was born in Charleroi, Pa., in 1918. He is survived by his wife, six children, 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Services are scheduled for Nov. 23 at the Riverside National Cemetery. The family asks that donations be made to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation or the World War II Museum in Eldred, Pa.

Col. Mitchell Paige, Medal of Honor Recipient, Dies

By Adam Bernstein
Post Staff Writer
November 18, 2003

Mitchell Paige, 85, a retired Marine Corps colonel who received the Medal of Honor after almost single-handedly staving off enemy forces during a crucial battle of World War II, died Nov. 15 at his home in La Quinta, Calif., southeast of Palm Springs. He had congestive heart failure.

On Oct. 26, 1942, Col. Paige, who was then a sergeant, was leading a platoon defending a small but strategic airfield on jungle-covered Guadalcanal, part of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. The islands and the airstrip, Henderson Field, were key positions in the defense of Australia.

Col. Paige and his 33 men placed their few machine guns on a hilltop ridge, bracing for the inevitable: thousands of Japanese soldiers planning to rush them at night.

To hear any sneak attack, Col. Paige placed C ration tins filled with empty bullet casings about 20 yards away, near the tall grass.

It was, in fact, a noisy assault. He said the Japanese yelled in the darkness "Banzai!" and "Blood for the emperor!" One of his own men started a chorus of "Blood for Eleanor!" referring to first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Because of the sheer volume of Japanese troops he faced, Col. Paige ordered members of his platoon to fire until they or the enemy were dead or wounded.

Soon, he was the only able-bodied American left on the ridge and solely held the Japanese at bay. In the pre-dawn, he darted from one machine gun to another, firing constantly to make the Japanese think he had a fully manned defense.

He was under ceaseless threat. At one point, he said, he felt the heat from bullets that whizzed past his neck. His metal helmet also was struck by gunfire.

As the battle waged into morning, he knew the enemy would see he was the only one standing.

By then, U.S. reinforcements had arrived with bayonets. Col. Paige grabbed one of his machine guns, still burning hot after hours of use and charged into enemy lines with the others.

The Japanese began their retreat.

Besides the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor, Col. Paige's decorations included the Purple Heart.

He spent two more years in the South Pacific before returning home. He was a veteran of the Korean War and retired in 1964 as a full colonel. During the Vietnam War, he did advisory work to test high-powered rockets.

Col. Paige, the son of Serbian immigrants, was born in the southwestern Pennsylvania town of Charleroi.

On his 18th birthday, in 1936, he walked and hitchhiked to the nearest Marine Corps recruiting station -- in Baltimore, 200 miles away.

After retiring, he spent years on a crusade to identify those who bought, stole and sold the Medal of Honor for profit or false glory. Starting in the mid-1990s, he worked in tandem with the FBI.

"I couldn't arrest these guys before I got together with the FBI," he told Newsday in April, "but I scared the hell out of them and even got some of the medals back."

Working with Rep. Al McCandless (R-Calif.), Col. Paige successfully lobbied for a provision in a 1994 crime bill that increased the penalties for selling a Medal of Honor from six months in jail and a $250 fine to one year in jail and a $100,000 fine.

A friend in the FBI also helped Col. Paige on another issue of great personal interest: becoming an Eagle Scout. His old paperwork had never been properly submitted before he enlisted in the Marine Corps.

In March, he received his Eagle Scout badge. "My heart is overwhelmed with joy," he said at the time.

His first wife, Genevieve Paige, died in 1979.

Survivors include his wife of 23 years, Marilyn Paige of La Quinta; two children from his first marriage, Mitchell J. Paige of Goddard, Kan., and Janis Bruha of San Mateo, Calif.; four stepchildren, Wendy Allaire of Laguna Hills, Calif., Judith Terry of Biggs, Calif., William Wylde of Whittier, Calif., and Robert Corey Wylde of Fullerton, Calif.; 15 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.