RUBEN P. SONGCO, 1LT, USA
Ruben Songco '43
Lucky Bag
From the 1943 Lucky Bag:
RUBEN PARAS SONGCO
Guagua, Philippines
Ben first won his way into our hearts the day he sprang to attention and clacked his bare heels while taking his medical exam. Always military, yet never failing to smile or to stop for a friendly conversation, Sammy was everyone's friend. He was a star member of the battalion football, tennis, and lacrosse teams and a varsity boxer. In the evenings, he attended the Newman Club, Chess Club, and worked on Reef Points. Beneath a rollicking laughing personality, Ruben was dead serious about this fighting business, and was ready and eager to sacrifice everything for one ultimate objective. We vie in our affections for Ruben!
The Class of 1943 was graduated in June 1942 due to World War II. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.
RUBEN PARAS SONGCO
Guagua, Philippines
Ben first won his way into our hearts the day he sprang to attention and clacked his bare heels while taking his medical exam. Always military, yet never failing to smile or to stop for a friendly conversation, Sammy was everyone's friend. He was a star member of the battalion football, tennis, and lacrosse teams and a varsity boxer. In the evenings, he attended the Newman Club, Chess Club, and worked on Reef Points. Beneath a rollicking laughing personality, Ruben was dead serious about this fighting business, and was ready and eager to sacrifice everything for one ultimate objective. We vie in our affections for Ruben!
The Class of 1943 was graduated in June 1942 due to World War II. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.
Loss
From A History of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion:
The first of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion missions departed Brisbane, Australia on October 23, 1943. MacArthur was there to bid them farewell as they left on the submarine USS Narwhal. The party consisted of Major Lawrence Phillips, Captain Galang, 1st Lieutenant Ruben Songco, four radio operators and two Reconnaissance men. They landed in Mindoro on November 13, 1943. The Japanese immediately knew of their landing from an informer in the town of Paluan and hunted them down. Only Galang and two men survived the war.
The fate of 1st Lieutenant Ruben Songco was a shameful tragedy. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, he was denied a commission in the U.S. Navy because he was a Filipino. Wanting to help liberate the Philippines, he accepted a commission in the U.S. Army and trained with the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments. After a series of gallant exploits, he was ambushed and killed in Panay in December 1944, betrayed by pro-Japanese Filipinos.
Other Information
There is a fascinating series of photos posted at Facebook (dated March 2017). It includes some pictures of Ruben, and then dozens of the ceremony in his home town when his remains were returned in 1960. (Following a post in 2022, a commenter remembered Reuben's portrait hanging in the commenter's family home growing up.)
One of the photographs is of a letter sent by the Naval Academy public affairs officer, who said that a plaque (possibly the one in the photographs, or a replica) was then in Memorial Hall.
The portrait of Ruben includes a Bronze Star; unable to find a citation.
From the Class of 1943 anniversary book "25 years later…":
Ben was born in Guagua, PamPanga, Philippine Islands and was a Philippine National. He was appointed from that country in June 1939 and upon graduation on 19 June 1942 was honorably discharged as a Midshipman, U.S. Navy. He was offered a commission in the Philippine Navy to serve with a unit then forming up in the States. It would mean a long time before combat the enemy. Though a spot in the Philippine Navy would have meant a substantial promotion, Ben requested and received a 2nd Lieutenant's commission in the U.S. Army in order to get into combat earlier. He then volunteered for, and was accepted into the cadre of guerrilla organizers, spies, and saboteurs recruited by General MacArthur through Colonel Whitney. After special training, these incredibly courageous men were landed in the Philippines by submarine. Knowing be forehand that they would have to operate almost without support and without hope of relief or reinforcement, they boldly and unceasingly harassed the Japanese from jungle hideouts. They cut communication lines, organized resistance in the barrios, blew up ammunition and oil dumps, sent radio reports of troop and ship movements. These last activities were the most effective of all, resulting in the sinking by U.S. submarines of hundreds of thousands of tons of Japanese shipping.
It was the radio messages that led to disaster for Ben. The location of his sending station was detected by radio direction finder, his unit was surrounded, and Ben, emaciated by fatigue, hunger, and disease after more than a year in the jungle, died on 3 December 1944 firing his carbine defiantly at an enemy machine gun.
He was survived by his mother, father, brother and sisters who all, ironically, lived through the war, unharmed.
Ben wore the Purple Heart, the American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, the Asiatic-Pacific Area Campaign Medal and the Philippine Defense Medal.
Photographs
Note on Rank
Despite invitation indicating a promotion to Captain -- and the Capt. Ruben P. Songco Freedom Square -- keeping rank as 1LT, as that is what is on the plaque in the photographs and the history of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion.
Unable to find listing of Reuben in the Army Officer Register of 1943, 1944, or 1945.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
