Dr. Santiago Sanchez Calo

             From the Records of Corita Calo Liban

In Memory of my Father 1898-1975
CAPT. SANTIAGO SANCHEZ CALO, MD (MC)
Chief Surgeon
1st Bn. 107th Infantry Regiment 105th Division
10th Military District (Mindanao)
Philippine Guerrilla Forces
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Medical Supply Officer "A" Corps
Medical Inspector
Exec Officer 33rd Station Hospital at
Alae, Bukidnon, Mindanao 1945-June 1946
Philippine Army
Captain Santiago Sanchez Calo, MD provided Medical treatment to PFC. Victor L. Mapes, United States Army Air Corps and (82) other American Prisoners of War (POW) survivors from the unmarked Japanese "Hell Ship" Freighter Shinyo Maru en route from the Davao to Manila with 750 POW's crammed into the freighter's two cargo holds which was torpedoed and sunk by the U.S. Submarine USS Paddle (SS-263) at Sindangan Bay, Zamboanga Del Norte, Mindanao, Philippine Islands at 4:51 pm September 7, 1944. Not until after the war did the American crewmen aboard the USS Paddle were told that the Shinyo Maru's human cargo were American POW's.
After the war, Doctor Calo wrote a long personal letter to Sgt. Mapes, a patient at the Walter Reed Army General Hospital describing the medical condition of his maggot filled, infectious, gangrenous, broken leg. In Doctor Calo's letter he wrote that "Sgt. Mapes tyified the cheerfulness, determination, patience, and readiness to cooperate with physicians under the most trying circumstances. Of all the 83 survivors, he had the unbounded capacity for suffering pains without as much as a word of complaint. A country with such citizens as Mapes cannot help but surmount obstacles and survived, even as Sgt. Mapes had demonstrated." The letter was later published in the Hospital Newsletter.
Sgt. Mapes mailed a photo of himself with this written inscription, "To Doc Calo, with Best Wishes, Victor L. Mapes, one of the 83 whom I owe my life to you. This same photo was published in a novel titled, "Death March". The novel was about WW II POW's in the Philippines, authored by Donald Knox. Corita confirmed the photo in the book was the same photo Sgt. Mapes gave her father,
Written by Harold Lumicao Liban June 12, 1986.

PS - In 1987 I was fortunate to make contact with Victor L. Mapes, after I located where he resided with his wife Lulu Belle in Silver Springs, Maryland. When my sisters in-law were visiting Corita and I in Bremerton, Washington, sis Methyl, and Nena, Edo, Chebing, Sandy, Corita); I was making the arrangements to have a reunion with Victor, Lulu Belle and his daughter residing in Seattle. but Victor became ill, and we were not able to meet him. I corresponded with Victor for a few years. I did a Google search on him in 2005, and found that he died and was buried at Arlington National Cemetary.

Harold Lumicao Liban 1/15/2010

Dr. Santiago Sanchez CALO Sr. is your wife's first cousin twice removed. You

  →  Angelita Sanchez Atega  your wife →  Severina Montilla Sanchez-Pacana  her mother →  Geronimo Rosales Sanchez  her father → Numeriano Atega Sanchez  his father →  Pedro Flores Sanchez  his father →  Asuncion Torralba Sanchez  his daughter →  Dr. Santiago Sanchez CALO Sr.  her son share this pat