Growing up during the Great Depression, Mitchell Paige knew that his best chance of finding employment was to join the military. After Paige graduated from McKeesport High School in 1936, his mother packed him a lunch and he set off on foot for the Marine Corps Recruiting Station, which was 200 miles away from his hometown of Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Paige enlisted on September 1, 1936, completed basic training, and eventually became a Marine gunner aboard USS Wyoming (BB-32). 

From 1937 to 1941, Paige’s assignments took him on a global tour. He was stationed at Cavite (in the Philippines), China, New York, Pennsylvania, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and North Carolina. While deployed to Cavite in 1937, Paige joined the baseball team as a pitcher. He had an astounding 55 wins and only 17 losses that year, making him a legend among his peers. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Paige was briefly deployed to Apia, Samoa, with the 7th Marines, before heading to Henderson Field at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in September 1942.

Last Man Standing 

 
Paige had only been at Henderson Field for about a month before he and his men took part in the inaugural ground offensive of World War II. Early in the morning of October 26, 1942, then-Platoon Sergeant Paige and his troops were at the top of a hill deep in the tropical jungle of Guadalcanal. With infantry support on the left and right, Paige realized his unit was the main defensive line for the entire airfield, and suddenly, out of the darkness, Paige dimly saw Japanese troops charging the line his men had created. 

Thinking quickly, Paige threw grenades with his good pitching arm, knocking out several enemy fighters. He ordered his men to fire their machine guns and weaponry, and they held off the first round of attacks. But several men were severely wounded. As they reloaded, a second wave of bullets began to sting Paige’s defensive line, wounding or killing every Marine on his team. Refusing to give up, Paige single-handedly began to move from one machine gun to the next, firing rounds at the enemy until he ran out of ammunition. Alone, Paige continued to rotate from one weapon to the next until reinforcements arrived. At one point, he engaged in hand-to-hand combat, forcing the Japanese to retreat. Paige’s heroic actions and unrelenting determination helped seal a victory for the Allies at Guadalcanal, preventing the Japanese from capturing Henderson Field.

A Fighting Spirit

For his tenacious action in combat and his unwavering courage, Paige was bestowed the Medal of Honor on May 21, 1943, in Balcombe, Australia. He continued to climb the military ranks, serving in various capacities until his retirement as a colonel in 1959. Even after retirement, though, Paige found ways to continue serving the U.S. Armed Forces. He completed extensive research on rockets and weaponry systems, and helped design a special rocket launcher that could fire flares and missiles. Paige also created air-inflated devices and rescue equipment prototypes, which he donated to the Army. 

In 1975, Paige published his autobiography, A Marine Named Mitch. During his later years, Paige partnered with the FBI to identify and expose individuals who were wearing or selling inauthentic copies of the Medal of Honor. Paige passed away on November 15, 2003, and was buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California. His fighting spirit, tireless work ethic, and fearless integrity left an indelible mark on American history.