Reconnaissance Company, Headquarters Battalion (Reinf), 1st Marine Division (Reinf) Fleet Marine Force Pacific 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force Pacific MORE THAN A HALF CENTURY COLLECTION OF HISTORY, TRIVIA, SEA STORIES, HALF-TRUTHS, SCUTTLEBUT AND WHITE LIES Issue #42 “When In doubt, empty the magazine” ........Korean War advice 23 December 2014 E. Fortini Photo H.Campbell Photo—1955 H.Campbell Photo—1955 H.Campbell Photo—1955 H.Campbell Photo—1955 IF YOU NOTICE THE ABSENCE OF “MEATY” CONTENT IN THIS ISSUE OF REFLECTIONS, THE CONTENT IS WHAT IT IS BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT SENT YOUR PHOTO’S, RECOLLECTIONS , OR SEA STORIES TO: [email protected] Recon Reflections Issue #42 - 23 December 2014 - Page 2 In mid-March 1952 the 8th Army, to whom the Marines were attached, instituted Operation Mixmaster. The operation was a massive redeployment of UN forces designed to put more South Korean Army units on the Main Line of Resistance. The 1st Marine Division was reassigned to the far western end of the United Nations line defending a 35-mile line that encompassed the Pyongyang to Seoul corridor. For much of the next year, in what would be termed the "Outpost War", action along this line consisted of small, localized actions because much of the fighting revolved around the hold- R. Luster Photo ing and retaking of various combat outposts along key pieces of terrain. During this period elements of Reconnaissance Company were assigned to the Kimpo Provisional Regiment, posted at Khangwa-do Island on the extreme left of the Division’s area of responsibility. The 1st Marine Division — including the Kimpo Pro- visional Regiment, the amphibian tractor battalion, the Korean Marines, and two Marine regiments on line — defended some 60,000 yards, two to four times that normally assigned to a similarly reinforced divi- sion......such was the degree of the Eighth Army’s confi- dence in the Marines. R. Luster Photo Photo from collection of Capt. EugeneR. Luster Breeze Photo Recon Reflections Issue #42 - 23 December 2014 - Page 3 On Nov. 15, 2003, an 85-year-old retired Marine Corps Colonel died of congestive heart failure at his home in La Quinta, Calif., southeast of Palm Springs . He was a combat veteran of World War II. Reason enough to honor him. But this Marine was a little differ- ent. This Marine was Mitchell Paige. It's hard today to envision -- or, for the dwindling few, to remember -- what the world looked like on 26 Oct 1942. The U.S. Navy was not the most powerful fighting force in the Pacific. Not by a long shot. So the Navy basically dumped a few thousand Marines on the beach at Guadalcanal. As Platoon Sgt. Mitchell Paige and his 33 riflemen set about carefully embracing their four water-cooled .30- caliber Browning machine guns, manning their section of the thin khaki line which was expected to defend Henderson Field against the assault of the night of 25 Oct 1942, it's unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide the definitive answer to that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated Japanese attackers? Nor did the commanders of the Japanese Army, who had swept everything before them for decades, expect their advance to be halted on some jungle ridge manned by one thin line of Marines in October of 1942. But by the time the night was over, The Japanese 29th Infantry Regiment has lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men, historian David Lippman reports. The Japanese 16th Regiment's losses are uncounted, but the [US] 164th's burial parties handled 975 Japanese bodies. ... The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low. In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40- Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded pound, belt-fed Browning's (the same design which John that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon; M. Browning fired for a continuous 25 minutes until it every one. As the night of endless attacks wore on, Paige ran out of ammunition, glowing cherry red, at its first moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and U.S. Army demonstration) and did something for which wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a the weapon was never designed. Sgt. Paige walked down few bursts from each of the four Browning's in turn, con- the hill toward the place where he could hear the last vincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the posi- Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, tions were still manned. the belt-fed gun cradled under his arm, firing as he The citation for Paige's Medal of Honor Citation de- went. fines the event: "When the enemy broke through the line The weapon did not fail. directly in front of his position, P/Sgt. Paige, command- At dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. ing a machine gun section with fearless determination, Conoley was first to discover the answer to our question: continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his How many able-bodied Marines does it take to hold a hill men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun Japanese infantrymen who have never known defeat? and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire." Mitchell Paige alone sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn would bring. (Continued on next page) Recon Reflections Issue #42 - 23 December 2014 - Page 4 (Continued from previous page) 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 historian Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the position." For the task, Major 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 coun- terattacked at 5:40 a.m., discovering that this extreme- ly short range allowed the optimum use of grenades. They cleared the ridge. And that's where the previously unstoppable wave of Japanese conquests finally broke and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal . But who remembers, today, how close-run a thing it was, the ridge held by a single Marine, in the autumn of 1942? Some time after, when the Hasbro Toy Co. telephoned An Army Ranger was on vacation in the asking permission to put the retired Colonel's face on depths of Louisiana and he wanted a pair of some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking. genuine alligator shoes in the worst way, But they weren't. That's his face on the little Marine but was very reluctant to pay the high they call "G.I. Joe." prices the local vendors were asking. After becoming very frustrated with the “no (Thanks to Rick Conn, US Navy Seabee Ret) haggle” attitude of one of the shopkeepers, the Ranger shouted, “maybe I’ll just go out and get my own alligator so I can get a pair of shoes at a reasonable price!” The vendor said, “ By all means, be my guest. Maybe you will run into a couple of Marines who were in here earlier saying the same thing.” So the Ranger headed into the bayou that same day and a few hours later came upon two men standing waist deep in the water. He thought, “those must be the two Marines the guy in town was talking about.” Just then, the Ranger saw a tremendously long gator swimming rapidly underwater towards one of the Marines. Just as the gator was about to attack, the Marine grabbed its neck with both hands and strangled it to death with very little effort. Then both Marines dragged it on shore and flipped it on its back. Laying nearby were several more of the creatures. One of the Marines then exclaimed, “Damn!, this one doesn’t have any shoes either!” Recon Reflections Issue #42 - 23 December 2014 - Page 5 The average age of the military man is 19 years. He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but He is a short haired, tight-muscled kid who, under never to clean his rifle. He can cook his own meals, normal circumstances is considered by society as mend his own clothes, and fix his own hurts. half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears, If you're thirsty, he'll share his water with you; not old enough to buy a beer, but old enough to if you are hungry he will share his food with you. die for his country. He never really cared much He'll even split his ammunition with you in the for work and he would rather wax his own car midst of battle when you run low. than wash his father's, but he has never He has learned to use his hands like weapons collected unemployment either. and weapons like they were his hands. He's a recent High School graduate; he was He can save your life - or take it, because that probably an average student, pursued some form of is his job.