Navy names destroyer after Medal of Honor recipient/HC alum

Based on information to date, other universities with Medal of Honor recipients include: Princeton (9), University of Washington (8), Texas A&M (8), Virginia Tech (7), Virginia Military Institute (7), Dartmouth (3), Holy Cross (3) Columbia (1), Notre Dame (1), Rutgers (1) & The Citadel (1)

John U.D. Page ’26 was an Army officer who, because of his age — 46 — and high rank, could have avoided serving with the Marines at the bloody battle of Chosin Reservoir. He fought nonetheless, and his 12 days of combat in Korea earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor.

Princeton was Page’s second choice, when his dream of attending West Point was thwarted by weak eyesight. He graduated from Princeton in 1926 with an engineering degree, a varsity letter in pistol, and an ROTC commission, and was called to duty in World War II as a reservist.

Trained in artillery, Page was considered an expert teacher, and he spent the war training troops at Fort Sill, Okla., much to his chagrin. He finally got to command an artillery battery in Germany, and remained in the military after World War II. Assigned to the prestigious Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., he pulled strings to go to Korea rather than to the classroom.

Page arrived in Korea in November 1950, just as tens of thousands of Chinese troops were attacking U.S. forces advancing through North Korea. The weather, too, was changing. Page would fight the last 12 days of his life in sub-zero cold.

The bespectacled Page, attached to the 52nd Transportation Truck Battal­ion, left X Corps headquarters at Hamhung Nov. 29. His mission was to establish traffic control on the main supply route for the 1st Marine Division and some Army units on the Chosin Reservoir plateau. This route would prove critical for the fighting retreat of U.S. forces, which were strung out for some 75 miles from Yudam-ni to Hamhung and the nearby evacuation port of Hungnam.

Page “chose to remain to aid an isolated signal station, thus being cut off with elements of the Marine division,” his citation explains. “After rescuing his jeep driver by breaking up an ambush near a destroyed bridge, Lt. Col. Page reached the lines of a surrounded Marine garrison at Koto-ri. He then voluntarily developed and trained a reserve force of assorted Army troops trapped with the Marines ... .”

Page also helped build an improvised airstrip at Koto-ri, where 750 casualties would be evacuated. The airstrip was under attack, and Page exposed himself to direct fire, twice mounting the rear deck of a tank and firing the machine gun. On Dec. 3, 1950, while being flown low over enemy lines in an observation plane, Page dropped hand grenades on Chinese positions, which he then sprayed with fire from his carbine.

After 10 days of constant fighting, Page was flown to Hamhung to arrange for artillery support. Rather than remain in safety, he joined the rear guard of a convoy as it moved south. As the convoy came under assault in a narrow pass, he manned the machine gun of an abandoned tank, later taking a machine gun to the hillside and fighting it out with the Chinese as the convoy slipped past.

On the night of Dec. 10, the convoy reached Sudong-ni, where it was halted by attacks from a strong enemy force. Page fought his way to the front of the column. His last words to a Marine private accompanying him were: “Get back ... I’ll cover you.” The three-page citation recounting Page’s deeds concludes, “Heedless of his safety, as he had been throughout the preceding 10 days, Lt. Col. Page remained forward, fiercely engaging the enemy single-handed until mortally wounded.”

The ROTC program at Princeton awards an annual scholarship in Page’s name. Bill Lewis ’71, who won the award as an undergraduate, says, “I consider it the highest award I’ve ever won in my life.”

His Medal of Honor citation reads: "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty. On 8 November 1942, near Port Lyautey, French Morocco, Lt. Col. Hamilton volunteered to accompany Col. Demas Craw on a dangerous mission to the French commander, designed to bring about a cessation of hostilities. Driven away from the mouth of the Sebou River by heavy shelling from all sides, the landing boat was finally beached at Mehdia Plage despite continuous machinegun fire from 3 low-flying hostile planes. Driven in a light truck toward French headquarters, this courageous mission encountered intermittent firing, and as it neared Port Lyaute a heavy burst of machinegun fire was delivered upon the truck from pointblank range, killing Col. Craw instantly. Although captured immediately after this incident, Lt. Col. Hamilton completed the mission”