Marine Col. Mitchell Paige isn't one to toot his own horn.
Shortly after he won the Medal of Honor in 1943, he shipped the star-shaped medallion home to Charleroi, Pa., from Guadalcanal -- and promptly forgot about it."I didn't pay too much attention to it because we had a lot more fighting to do," says Paige, 81, who continued on with the 1st Marine Division to assignments in Australia, New Guinea and New Britain Island. "And I figured the medal really belonged to all the men in my platoon, not just me."
It's no surprise then that Paige, who retired from the Marines in 1964, wasn't overly excited when the Hasbro toy company called in 1996 and asked how he would like to see his heroic 25-year-old face on a G.I. Joe action figure.
Earlier that year, Hasbro had launched its "Classic Collection" for adult collectors with a Medal of Honor recipient Francis S. Currey action figure. Paige, who now lives in La Quinta, Calif., was to be the second.
"They told me when they did their research, everyone said, 'You have to do Mitchell Paige,' " recalled his wife, Marilyn.
To which Paige laughingly responded: "Who wants to be a doll?"
Marilyn, however, persuaded him.
"How many children have a doll of their grandpa?" she said, adding that the action figure might educate people who know little about the first U.S. ground offensive of World War II.
"A lot of the younger generations don't even know that Guadalcanal even happened," she said. "I felt this might cause them to look back and find out a little bit about the past."
Paige agreed, with a few conditions.
"I told them, as long as they make me look like a Marine and have me carrying my machine gun, it would be OK."
He also asked that his small stipend be given to the Medal of Honor Society and that Hasbro supply a figure for each of his grandchildren.
Unlike the 3 3/4-inch children's "Joes," 12-inch figures like Paige's appeal mainly to adults with a keen interest in the military, as well as a strong sense of nostalgia, says Bill Hartglass, Hasbro's team leader for G.I. Joe product development.
"They either played with them as kids and still collect them or are buying them for their own children," he says.
Though G.I. Joe is historically perceived as portraying the ordinary soldier rather than a hero, "we felt there were real-life people who we believed encompassed the Joe essence of honor, courage and valor," said Hartglass.
As for Mitchell Paige, "his story is pretty compelling. It's almost something out of a movie."
The son of a railroad construction worker, Paige had dreamed of a career in the military ever since he was a little boy, when his family moved to the Camden Hills section of West Mifflin, Pa. He remembered his mother taking him to the annual Armistice Day parade in downtown McKeesport.
"When the Marines came by in their blue and red stripes, looking so sharp and standing up so straight, I'd think, 'I sure want to be one of those guys some day!' " he said.
Paige got his chance a few days after graduating from McKeesport High School, in 1936, when he walked with a friend the 200 miles to the nearest recruiting station, in Baltimore. Just 17, he was informed he wasn't old enough, or for that matter, heavy enough.
Two months later, right after his 18th birthday, the teen headed back to Baltimore. This time, he didn't take any chances, downing a dozen bananas and several glasses of water before he stepped on the scale. Within a few days, he was on his way to boot camp in Parris Island, S.C.
In December 1936, Paige was assigned to the battleship USS Wyoming and sent overseas to the Philippines, China and Cuba. By the time the United States had entered the war, he was a machine gunner in the 7th Regiment of the newly created 1st Marine Division, which in the fall of 1942 was sent to the jungles of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands to battle the Japanese for control of a landing strip known as Henderson Field. The fighting, which lasted more than four months, proved fierce.
"Every day, we were bombed from the sky several times, while at night we were lobbed with shells the size of a man and pelted with sniper fire," said Paige, who commanded a machine-gun platoon of 48 men.
On Oct. 23, 1942, the Japanese initiated an all-out drive to force the Americans off the island. Two days later, Paige's platoon, which by now numbered 33 and was positioned on the top of a hill to the west of the airfield, was left to fend off wave after wave of enemy soldiers in pitch darkness and driving rain.
His men had hooked trip wires to empty sea ration cans filled with empty cartridges to alert them to the advancing forces. But when the Japanese troops broke through, "it was like a big ocean wave hitting," he said.
Twenty-five men survived the hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, knives and pistols. But after a second assault came washing over the soldiers a few minutes later, Paige was the only Marine still alive.
Yet he was determined to hold the line. For the next four hours, under a steady hail of Japanese shells, he fought back. When his own machine gun was destroyed, Paige moved to another, then another, running from gun to gun against the advancing troops until reinforcements finally arrived.
Then, forming a new line, Paige led a bayonet charge, pushing the enemy back and preventing a breakthrough in the American line. The next day, Paige was recommended for the Medal of Honor; within a month, the Americans had secured the entire island.
It took Hasbro about five weeks, working from old photos and telephone interviews, to create the preliminary Mitchell Paige prototype. While the body was standard G.I. Joe, the face had to be first shaped in clay, then carved from wax, according to senior designer Kurt Groen.
At the same time, Paige's accessories -- everything from his 30-caliber machine gun, twin grenades and sheath-covered bayonet to his dog tags and blue-ribboned medal -- were painstakingly recreated, though not immediately to Paige's satisfaction.
"I put big Xs on everything I thought looked too Army," says Paige.
Hand drawings of his uniform were sent to a fabric company in Rhode Island so that detailed pattern drawings could be created; the individual weapons were also broken down piece by piece for recreation in plastic.
In addition, Paige's biographical information was given to military re-enactor Larry Felman to create the package. The goal, says Groen, was to "make him look proud and strong, like a Marine." The box depicts Paige in action, ammo belt draped over his shoulder, firing his machine gun against a backdrop of palm trees.
Paige, who today spends much of his time searching out and exposing Medal of Honor impostors, admits it was "kind of exciting" to see the first of the figures when they were released in October 1998.
"It's a real honor," he said.
His only complaints were that the green canvas uniform wasn't technically correct. Hasbro was unable to mimic the original herringbone material. And the hair.
"I never had hair that red!" he said.
"Everyone is just thrilled to death," said his wife.
Apparently, so are G.I. Joe collectors. The entire limited edition of $37 figures sold out by the end of the year. The company is considering a second run in 2000.
Despite his attempt to keep it all low-profile, Paige says he has been inundated by collectors of all ages asking him to autograph their figures.
"It's about time that our young people had some real heroes to look up to rather than rock stars or sports figures," Marilyn declared.
For more information on Hasbro's G.I. Joe Classic Collection, visit their Web site at www.hasbrotoys.com or call 800-GO-GIJOE. Visit www.mastercollector.com for information on the G.I. Joe Collector's Club.