Battle for Henderson Field
In March 1941, Paige was transferred back to the United States and ordered to New River, North Carolina, to help construct and prepare a new Marine Corps training base, which later became Camp Lejeune. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, he was sent again overseas with the 7th Marines and landed at Apia, British Samoa. From Samoa, the 7th Marines landed on Guadalcanal in September 1942. On October 26, he earned the nation's highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor, during the campaign for Guadalcanal, specifically the Battle for Henderson Field, when he made a desperate stand against Japanese troops after they had broken through the lines and killed or wounded all of the other Marines in his machine gun section. Platoon Sergeant Paige fired his machine gun until it was destroyed, then moved from gun to gun, keeping up a withering fire until he finally received reinforcements. He later led a bayonet charge that drove the Japanese back and prevented a breakthrough in American lines. While on Guadalcanal, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the field on December 19, 1942.