Ovilla Joseph Leo Dominique Soucy

“My favorite memories of Pepere are fishing and his pipe. Pepere smoked a great-smelling tobacco and I loved sitting on his lap when I was young so I could smell his pipe. Pepere owned a small fishing camp; I remember fishing on Lake Champlain in New York. We would fish for hours and bring them back to clean and eat. My favorite fishing memory is when we found a school of fish and — when when it was time to leave — he told me I should put an X on the water so we could find it again the next day. We laughed and went back to camp.”

– Mariel Cooke, student

Ovilla Soucy, remembered by his granddaughter, Mariel Cooke

Ovilla Soucy, a naturalized U.S. citizen, saved General George Patton by driving a tank over him so he could climb in its escape hatch.

My Pepere (French for grandfather) was Ovilla Joseph Leo Dominique Soucy. He was born in 1915 in Montreal, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the U.S. and married my grandmother.

He was a welder in a steel mill. He wasn’t drafted because steel was needed for the war. Later, he became a naturalized citizen and joined the war in 1944. He was a sergeant in Company B in the Third Tank Battalion in the 10th Armored Division of the Army. They landed in France and worked their way across Rhineland and Ardennes. At some point he became the platoon tank commander as a sergeant because he was the highest ranking individual still alive.

A story I have been told is that General Patton would ride out in front of the American line and twice he became pinned down by enemy fire. Pepere drove over top of Patton and let him in through the escape hatch in the bottom of the tank.

Pepere was a decorated soldier. He earned the European African Middle Eastern Service Medal, the Distinguished Unit Badge, and a Purple Heart.