<b>Autumn,1942: It came down to one Marine, and one ship.(61 yrs ago)</b>

Prev. posted on Enter Stage Right and Free Republic ^ | October 23, 2000 | Vin Suprynowicz

[MadelineZapeezda]

Yes, he is an American of Serbian descent. He hailed from West Mifflin, PA

[MadelineZapeezda]

Please tell him that there are many of us here in the northern panhandle of WV who admire him greatly and will never forget his courage and valor.
His cousin George lives here in our hometown.

[MadelineZapeezda]

ping

[MadelineZapeezda]

bumping an old thread

[jimfree]

That story goes way beyond "Wow!" That Sgt Paige managed somehow not to be taken out by a good shot or a lucky shot is amazing. His firing from each of the four positions and then using the weapon as a hand-held is a combination of superb training, genius, guts, and a stubborn refusal to let history take another path.

The man was blessed that day. It's on reading stories like this that I wish there were something above the MOH. Most of the award's recipients have been quite deserving, but too often the medal has been awarded with a political aim instead of recognizing truly conspicuous gallantry of the highest order. Performance on the battlefield doesn't get any better than this.

[MadelineZapeezda]

I know what you mean about the MOH......maybe like a 10th degree

[Bigun]

Thank you for calling this thread to my attention my GOOD friend!

[Mortimer Snavely]

Please send my best regards to this fine gentleman.

[rmh47]

My heartfelt gratitude to Col. Paige and to all of his comrades-in-arms for their heroism, with a "thank you" to John Moses Browning, as well, who gave them the tools necessary to do their jobs.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for an excellent post. Thanks for the ping Neil

[Lancey Howard]

Thank you for that great post!
Stories like this make me proud to be an American and a Marine.
Semper fidelis,
LH

[MadelineZapeezda]

Monday Morning bump!

Thank you and all who served .

[MadelineZapeezda]

misspelled....my bad

[holdmuhbeer]

Cool, seems like i've heard that story on the history channel.

[E.Allen]

Semper Fi Marines

[dcwusmc]

PINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGgggggggggggggggggg!!!!

[dcwusmc]

Hey, Doug... You aboard?

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

Bears repeating:

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 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 gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.

The weapon did not fail. 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.

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	Note: this topic is from 2003. The older, old-style topic with this great heroic story is no longer available. Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution? That's what I did before. Not today. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·