"I Did What I Could"

The shy, broad-shouldered, 26-year-old lieutenant with atabrine-yellowed skin was over at his in-laws' bungalow. He was doing his laundry. Said he: "I've been washing shirts ever since I joined the Marines, and besides, the laundry wouldn't know how to put in the creases." Mitch Paige, professional soldier and war hero, was sprucing up for a celebration arranged by his home town.

It was a long time since he had been back. At 18 Mitchell Paige had left his home in Mifflin, Pa., to join the Marines. He served in China, the Philippines, returned in 1941 and married his boyhood sweetheart, dark-haired Stella Forsyth. Then came the Solomons and New Britain. On Guadalcanal Sergeant Mitchell Paige became the tenth Marine to win the Congressional Medal of Honor in World War II.

The Reason. Mitchell Paige, no cinema gyrene, was a quietly savvy guy. He neither smoked, drank, nor swore (his most rugged expletive was saved for the Japs: "damned slopeheads"). In Samoa he nursed a child through fever, was appointed by the natives as "Talking Chief"--tribal adviser.

As a platoon sergeant, he put his men first, himself last. But in battle he was not self-effacing. One night in October 1942, he bore the heavy brunt of a Jap attempt to retake Henderson Field. When the 19 men in his section had been shot down, Mitch Paige hefted a machine gun, and, scribbling the night with fire, played lethal tag with the enemy. Reinforced, he led the fresh men in a counterattack. At battle's end, no Japanese lay dead before Mitch Paige's sector. Said he: "I did what I could."

Long Way Home. Promoted on the field to officer's rank, Lieut. Paige chose to stay with his men. ("No man could beat that gang.") He served with them brilliantly in the attack on Cape Gloucester and the taking of Hill 660.

Now, after three years, he was home.

The people of Allegheny County came to fetch him, neat in his freshly laundered uniform. There followed for handsome, reticent Mitch Paige three sweltering days of parades, gifts, testimonials, speeches. High moment came when the cars halted in. the small town of Versailles. Spying a grocery store, Mitch Paige excused himself, hopped out. Said he: "I just want to smell a grocery store again."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.