Soochow and the 4th Marines by William R. Evans

Atwood Publishing Co. ISBN 0-9617585-1-1

The true story of a small mongrel dog adopted as a mascot by the 4th Marines in Shanghai, China in 1937. Soochow became a legend in his own time riding around Shanghai in rickshaws, eating sirloin steaks and drinking beer with the other Marines in his own tailor made uniforms.

When the 4th was ordered to the Philippines just before Pearl Harbor, Private 1st Class Soochow was smuggled aboard ship with with them. When the Marines were charged with the defense of the island fortress of Corregidor, Soochow was also there hitting the foxholes with his buddies. Soochow was on point always alerting them to incoming Japanese aircraft long before the primitive radar picked them up.

When Corregidor fell to the Japanese in May 1942, Soochow was also taken prisoner and spent almost three years in Japanese prisoner of war camps with his fellow Marines sharing their meager rations because he was not entitled to one of his own.

He survived all this, and upon being liberated at Bilibid Prison by the US Army in February of 1945, was flown with one of his Marines buddies to the States. Soochow became the heroic, pampered, ever aloof mascot at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California. Soochow lived out his final days in comfortable, well deserved, military retirement.

picture right is Technical Sergeant Paul J. "Pappy" Wells and Private 1st Class Soochow shortly after being liberated.
 

 

return to top  ^