bttt
On December 8th 1941....2 Bronx kids Jimmy and Vinny went down to the Marine Corp recrutiment booth and went in on the Buddy system....
Sometime in 1942 my father Jim and his cousin Vinny landed on ‘the canal’....
after that they went to Bougainville...where Dad caught a case of elephantitis from an ‘Axis Mosquito’...and was shipped home to recuperate....
Both were kept in reserve after that but scheduled to fight on the main Japanese Islands in 1945 when Truman Nuked the Japanese...and thank God he did.....
both men made it through the war....neither would ever talk about the combat part of their tour (except to say how horrible war could be).
Quiet Heros......
OUTSTANDING article. Thanks for posting. Paige almost makes Audie Murphy seem like a piker!
Thank you..Great heroic story.
As terrible as it was, men (and one man) were in a position to think and act on their own, pure survival the motivating power.
I am not 'militarized' today, so I may be suckin' canal water ... but it seems we are now so well trained and (dare I say .. controlled ? ), that the heroism of this caliber can never happen again.
Damn, I'm proud to be an American.
Excellent !!!
Great tale - thank you.
My friends and I grew up on stories of men and battles like this. Men like Sgt. Paige and his platoon were our absolute heroes. They forever stand tall among the finest Americans this great nation has produced.
The world today little appreciates the gift they have received from the men who fought and won WWII. Sadly, that lack of appreciation applies to much of modern America.
Young men of the post WWII era didn’t fear the draft - we counted the days until we could enlist. The very morning I turned seventeen I was waiting at the door when the Marine Corps recruiter arrived. My best friend and I enlisted on the Buddy System.
Semper Fidelis
Great stuff! Thanks for posting this.
In a situation of kill or be killed animal pure survival instincts take hold.
Today we face our own enemy. But this enemy does not wear a uniform. This enemy is domestic and is working to tear down this constitutional republic from within.
I am not sure which enemy I would rather face or which is more dangerous.
Mitchell Paige....a great American of Serbian descent bump!!!!!
All young males, like and look up to male males. We are hardwired as young males to bond with older males to learn to hunt, fight, survive. Every single male today, represents an unbroken genetic experiment back to eons unknown. Failed hunters, killers do not exist today.
This is why young boys pick up sticks and rocks to throw, hit, smash. Hardwired.
This is why faggy, lefty, liberal eunic metrosexual males are so derided by hardwired, successful young boys. The tribe, the males do not want, and it is a threat to the tribe, not to hunt, kill.
This is why cities, removed from physical reality, the old reality, the ever true reality, have so many faggy metrosexuals. Because they don’t grow the food they eat, they don’t mine the minerals they use, nor forge the mental they use, nor go to sea to eat the low fat fish they love so much. They are in the big, modern cave. With women. Telling stories. News stories. Art stories. Advertising stories. Politic stories. Just like back in the old cave man days. There were cavemen that went out on the hunt for days, and brought back the meat. And there were cavemen that stayed back with the women, and told stories. These cavemen became priests, shamans, and later politicians. Hanging around women, confused them as to their nature, many thought of feminine things. These became homosexuals.
Modernity is too new, and not assured. The jury isn’t even at the courthouse for a million years of behaviour to change.
Obama, Rom Eman-fag-uel, Biden, “Linsey” Graham and all the other metro’s have no freeking clue about what runs the world. Growing up in uber elite lefty leaf towns, going to limp wrist, tea sipping, smoke blowing( and other things and drugs) colleges, then feathermerchant law schools and finally politics are all exercises in delusion. Brain damage.
PAIGE, MITCHELL
Rank and organization: Platoon Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Place and date: Solomon Islands, 26 October 1942. Entered service at: Pennsylvania. Born: 31 August 1918, Charleroi, Pa.
Citation:
For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action above and beyond the call of duty while serving with a company of marines in combat against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands on 26 October 1942. When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, 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. His great personal valor and unyielding devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
Those interested in the topic might want to check out Multi-Man Publishing’s upcoming Combat Sim on Guadalcanal.
Kawaguchi’s Gamble: Edson’s Ridge.
http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/viewGame.php?id=59
They also have in their ‘Tactical Combat Series” Bloody Ridge which is a different scale of the same battle. Look it up.
No, I do not work for MMP. I just buy their products.
My late father-in-law, Peter Martuselli, was a Marine on Guadalcanal. Pete could tell you the names of all the men that died during the unbelievable fighting, many of them his friends. It is hard to believe that a young man could live through the stress of war and still have the sweet spirit that Pete was known for all of his life.
Blurry-eyed bump!
Great post! I love Vin’s articles.
The world first noticed it at Bello Wood. Then there was Pearl harbor, Wake island, Bataan, Guadalcanal........
Our enemies scoff at us and consider us weak. All to their utter desolation. Unfortunately we need such heroes because our so called political leaders screw up. No screw-ups then no need for heroes. Think about it.
Bloody Ridge.The term doesnt mean much these days but when we were kids it sure as hell did.
