VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: In 1942, it came down to one Marine - Opinion

SAVE THIS

EMAIL THIS Print

PRINT THIS Popular

POST A COMMENT

Oct. 25, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: In 1942, it came down to one Marine

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ
MORE COLUMNS

It's hard to envision -- or, for the dwindling few, to remember -- what the world looked like on Oct. 26, 1942, when a few thousand U.S. Marines stood essentially stranded on the God-forsaken jungle island of Guadalcanal, placed like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, the most likely route for the Japanese Navy to take if they hoped to reach Australia.

On Guadalcanal, the Marines struggled to complete an airfield. Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto knew what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven supporting U.S. Navy vessels from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.

Most Popular Stories

J.C. WATTS: Bad dog food for the Democrats

EDITORIAL: Leaving Las Vegas -- alone

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Exposing the 'secure our borders' lie

LETTERS: President delivers another blow to Las Vegas

LETTERS: Mayor doesn't deserve to be labeled a 'racist'

THOMAS MITCHELL: The audacity of hypocrisy

LETTERS: Death of Yucca Mountain not worth a news release?

EDITORIAL: Hiking permits

LETTERS: Suspend sports, reorganize district to save money

LETTERS: Yucca Mountain presents an opportunity

As Platoon Sgt. Mitchell Paige and his 33 riflemen set about carefully placing their four water-cooled .30-caliber Brownings, manning their section of the thin khaki line that was expected to defend Henderson Field against the assault everyone expected on the night of Oct. 25, 1942, it's unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide the definitive answer to what had previously been a mainly theoretical question: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against a desperate attacking force of 2,000?

Nor did the commanders of the mighty Japanese Army, who had swept all before them for decades -- OK, they decided not to push Marshall Zhukov any further in Manchuria -- expect their advance to be halted on some God-forsaken jungle ridge manned by one thin line of Yanks in khaki in October 1942.

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," writes naval historian David Lippman. "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 in Mitchell Paige's platoon. 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, 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."

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 exec Maj. Odell M. Conoley was first to discover the answer to our question.

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

For the task, Maj. 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. Sixty-seven years ago, on an unnamed ridge on an insignificant jungle island.

But who remembers, today, how close-run a thing it was -- or why we found ourselves in such desperate straits in 1942?

When the Hasbro Toy Co. called some years back, asking permission to put the retired colonel's face on a child's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking.

But they weren't. That's his mug, on the little Marine issued as part of the "branches of the service" series by the makers of "G.I. Joe."

-- -- --

On Nov. 15, 2003, a few years after I published the first version of this column, 85-year-old retired Marine Corps Col. Mitchell Paige died of congestive heart failure at his home in La Quinta, Calif., southeast of Palm Springs.

A dwindling number of the boys who fought in the Pacific -- or in Europe or North Africa -- are still with us. When they are gone, will the lessons they learned vanish with them? Those who cannot remember the past, recall, are condemned to have George Santayana quoted at them forever.

Is the lesson that we should fund a permanent expensive worldwide empire of military occupation? I don't think so -- doesn't seem compatible, somehow, with a republican government of limited powers. Overstretched empires have a tendency to collapse from the center, anyway. In fact, our forces were pretty far-flung, as it was, in 1941 -- though their apparent strength, in places like the Philippines, proved hollow.

But once, 85 long years ago, the arrogant victorious allies quibbled about whether bankrupt Germany should be made to pay them $4 billion or $10 billion in reparations over the next 60 years, as frustrated German veterans in Bavaria grew fed up and marched down to join the German Workers' Party, an outfit that promised them a rebirth of Aryan glory, a "New Deal," if you will.

Once, those who sought "peace, peace at any price" sold scrap steel to the Japanese, attended "peace conferences," stood by and hoped for the best as Hitler re-militarized the Rhineland and then grabbed Austria and the Sudentenland in what we now know were a series of huge bluffs -- the fuhrer started out using "tanks" that would barely have stood up to a cap pistol.

We gave away our advantages, one by one, based on our trust in the good will of man. Till it came down to one Marine.

Shall we have to cut it that close, again?

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Review-Journal and author of the books "Send in the Waco Killers" and "The Black Arrow." A version of this column first appeared in these pages more than a decade ago.

Share & Save

Leave Your Comment	20 Reader Comments
Terms & Conditions The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The reviewjournal.com does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please notify the web editor. Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 48 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. Max Friedman wrote on November 02, 2009 11:16 PM: Thanks for the wonderful article about Mitchell Paige and his men on Guadalcanal. They represented the best of the brave American soldiers, sailors and flyboys who fought the bloody Pacific campaigns. Among them was my father-in-law, James Lucore, 75th JASCO, Iwo Jima, the only Army assault company to land there (Signal Corps). We have many heroes among us whose devotion to America have been overshadowed by those now in power who hate America, have never fought for her, and don't support our armed forces now in combat. Sgt. Paige represents the best in America. Our leaders today, the worst. The Revolution begins tomorrow, Nov. 3rd, in my old colonial state of Virginia; New Jersey, the site of Gen. Washington's greatest victory at Trenton; and in New York state. Tomorrow we take back our country. The tragedy is that the fight is right here on our home shores, despite the fact that our armed forces are fighting against another enemy so far away (including my son, OIF, 4/2003). My how times have changed, and for the worst. However, with new men/women like Sgt. Paige around, we are going to win, and there are a lot of them now emerging to lead the fight against our domestic enemies. After 40 years in this fight (including as a journalist in Vietnam), I want to win this fight before I die. I owe it to my children and grandchildren. If we lose, it's all over for America. Thanks Sgt. Paige and men. You gave use 60 years of freedom. Now it is our turn to gain another 60. Ronni Alshech wrote on October 29, 2009 06:54 PM: My father-in-low Mr. James O'Keefe, a 20 years veteran retired Gunnery Sergeant who just turned 87, was there that night next to Mitchell Paige and was part of Odell Conoley’s group of 17 who charged down hill at dawn. When he chooses to talk about that night – his recollection is extremely vivid and detailed. I wonder if there are any other living survivals of that night. Thank you, ronnialshech@aol.com Paolo wrote on October 28, 2009 01:38 PM: It's been said on this thread that Islam is "the enemy." What--all 1.5 billion of them? Hogwash! Muslims come in all types--just like Christians, Jews, and Hindus. Those I have known in America have been courteous, thoughtful, and friendly. Not once has a Muslim ever even tried to convert me to Islam. I've had many interesting and enlightening conversations with Muslims. Now, there are a few fanatic Muslims in the Middle East, who have gained a following because they are opposed to America's constant meddling in that part of the world. Get the US out of the Middle East (and the rest of the world), and those fanatics would vanish like vampires exposed to the sun. John F wrote on October 28, 2009 09:08 AM: Proud Marine, Please don't denigrate us progressives, liberals, or whatever you want to call us, in that manner. The notion that we don't support our men and women in uniform is offensive. We may have different politics, but many liberals serve in the Corps, and we liberals stand second to none in our respect for, and admiration of, those who have served and are serving in the Marines. This goes for all the men and women in service to our country, whether in the Corps, the Army, the Navy, or the Coast Guard. I am one liberal who won't ever vote for anyone who suggests that we weaken our commitment to the men and women of the armed forces. I won't vote for anyone who acts to lower veteran's benefits or limit the acces our active duty personnel have to medical care, body armor, or any of the materials they need to ensure that they remain the best trained, best equipped fighting forces in the world. I don't know a single person, liberal or conservative, who feels any differently. They say that there are only two types of people who really know what it is to be a Marine: the Marines themselves and their enemies. I thank G-d every day that I am not part of that latter group. Thank you for your service, sir, and thank you to Marines everywhere. You honor us all by it, and we are truly grateful. Vicki Reger wrote on October 27, 2009 02:07 PM: I just want to say thank you for remembering and helping to bring us all a little closer together. Your words hit deep in the heart of this sister of a fallen Marine. I, for one, will never forget... Semper Fi Bill Smith wrote on October 27, 2009 09:42 AM: Franklin "the Demon" Roosevelt deserves no respect. Like the tyrant Lincoln, he should be ridiculed for the evil deeds he did. Dean M. Johnson wrote on October 26, 2009 08:29 PM: I know this story. I served proudly as a United States Marine in India Company, 3rd Battalion, 2d Marines, 2d Marine Division from 1973 to 1975. I am very proud of our country. We DID NOT fight AND WIN a 40 year long Cold War to become the United Soviet Socialist States of America. God Bless America and all the Soldiers, Sailors, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard that serve our Beloved Country. Robert wrote on October 26, 2009 05:18 PM: Another point with today's enemy, Islam: it must have about 20 different militant factions, each with its own demands for a temporary truce. But actions that would fulfill a term for one faction become a breach of another faction's terms, so even if we did get a truce with one faction, leaving 19 others in open conflict, seeking a truce with a second one of the factions and adhering to those terms could easily become a breach of the first faction's terms, putting them back in a state of war. The only way we are ever going to have peace again is with a smashing, total victory over Islam. There is no other way. So we might as well fight the war we are going to be fighting anyway now, while we still have the advantage. "...If you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly, then you may come to the moment when you'll have to fight with all the odds against you and a precarious chance of survival..." - Winston Churchill David wrote on October 26, 2009 02:29 PM: So it is really only the CAUSE of wars that we appear to be at odds about. If the cause is sufficiently noble, we would ALL fight (ideally as well as this marine) Where is the debunking of revisionist history concerning the start of these wars? Is Smedley Butler a liar or a misguided socialist? The people who trust the federal reserve are the "loons", right? Actually, I object to unwarranted personal attacks on supporters of even THIS obvious example of a shaky belief system (which now holds us hostage to the consequences of many, mostly unknown actions) Titus wrote on October 26, 2009 01:32 PM: Semper Fi, Marine. Some of us will never forget. Read All Comments