WIX Archives
Re: Mitchell Paige MoH Obit.
Posted by Mike on Fri Nov 21, 2003 02:00:50 PM
In reply top Mitchell Paige MoH Obit. posted by t6gg on Fri Nov 21, 2003 12:33:07 PM
Col. Mitchell Paige, a feisty and outspoken Marine who received the Medal of Honor for his "extraordinary heroism" during World War II and then spent decades exposing phonies who claimed the nation's highest military decoration, died Saturday at his home in La Quinta (Riverside County).
He was 85 years old, and the cause of death was congestive heart failure.
Col. Paige, who spent several years living in Redwood City before moving to his retirement home in La Quinta, was a "Marine's Marine," one longtime friend said.
"He was the epitome of a Marine," said retired Marine Lt. Col. Thomas Vetter of San Juan Capistrano (Orange County). "He cared about his men, and whenever he gave a talk, he said, 'This Medal of Honor belongs to all 33 men in my platoon on Guadalcanal.' "
He was born in Charleroi, Pa., in 1918, and at the age of 17 walked 200 miles to a Marine recruiting station in Baltimore and tried to join. The Marines turned him down. He waited until he was 18, and this time they let him in. Pearl Harbor was still four years away.
On Oct. 26, 1942, he found himself in the thick of battle as a platoon sergeant during the pivotal battle for Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, a key to the island-hopping campaign westward by U.S. forces bent on invading Japan.
"When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, " his Medal of Honor citation reads, "P/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 against the advancing hordes until reinforcements finally arrived. Then, forming a new line, he dauntlessly and aggressively led a bayonet charge, driving the enemy back and preventing a breakthrough in our lines."
Platoon Sgt. Paige received a battlefield commission as a lieutenant, stayed in the Marine Corps and eventually retired in 1964 as a full colonel. His autobiography, "A Marine Named Mitch," was published in 1975. Initially, he didn't want to write it, but he was talked into it by a pal, actor (and former combat Marine) Lee Marvin. The book is now in its fifth printing and is part of the "U.S. Marine Reading Program," a reading list approved by the commandant of the Marine Corps.
Although he was now well out of harm's way and spending much of his time as a public speaker, at the heart of Col. Paige's life, as always, was The Medal.
The Medal of Honor is not just any medal. Nearly 40 million men and women have fought in America's wars since the start of the Civil War, but only 3,408 have been recipients of the medal (some of them more than once), 614 of them posthumously, according to the Web site of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. The medal carries with it an aura of exclusivity, a mystique that makes four-star generals salute humble enlisted men who wear the coveted ribbon. As of April 2003, there were only 137 living recipients of the medal, according to the society.
So it was all the more galling to Col. Paige when he discovered there were many Americans who were saying they'd won it. (One of the first things anyone learns in Medal of Honor lore is that you don't win it; you receive it. It's not a competition.) In a lengthy interview with The Chronicle at his La Quinta home four years ago, Col. Paige railed against the liars, saying he found them all over the place -- in parades, at military bases, being mentioned in obituaries. At the time, he said he had bagged at least 500 phonies.
Col. Paige said he had once been invited by a major general friend of his to ride with another medal recipient at a parade at the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base, not far from his home. When he got there, "the guy was sitting in the car, and I walked up and took one look and told my friend, 'John, I'm going to watch the parade from the stands. He's a phony, an impostor.' "
The man, posing as a Navy captain, had never received the medal and, moreover, had never been in the service.
Memorial services for Col. Paige, whose Medal of Honor was pinned on his chest by President Franklin Roosevelt, will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Riverside National Cemetery, 22495 Van Buren Blvd., Riverside.
Col. Paige is survived by his wife, Marilyn; a son, Mitchell J. Paige of Goddard, Kan., and a daughter, Janis Bruha of San Mateo; two stepdaughters, Wendy Allaire of Laguna Hills (Orange County) and Judith Terry of Biggs (Butte County); two stepsons, William Wylde of Whittier (Los Angeles County) and Robert Corey Wylde of Fullerton (Orange County); and 15 grandchildren.
The family suggests donations to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 3008, Princeton, NJ 08543, or the World War II Museum, 201 Main St., P.O. Box 273, Eldred, PA 16731