Talk:Mitchell Paige
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[edit] Medal of Honor
The proper name for the award is Medal of Honor and not "Congressional Medal of Honor." I went ahead and changed it. However, I also suspect it was so used for a reason in this article, and I am interested in hearing it. Rklawton 03:50, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 00:02, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] A stirring account
I ran across a more stirring, but perhaps less encyclopedic, account of Mitchell Paige: One Marine, One Ship. I think it is fair use to quote a few extracts:
How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated attackers? ... the American forces had so little to work with that Paige's men would have only the four 30-caliber Brownings to defend the one ridge through which the Japanese opted to launch their final assault against Henderson Field ... Among the 90 American dead and wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon. Every one. As the night 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. ... In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed Brownings ... 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 gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went. ... Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley first discovered 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.