The Wolfhounds

Nec Aspera Terrent — “No Fear on Earth”

For more than a century the Wolfhounds have answered every call the nation has made — from the jungles of the Philippines to the snows of Siberia, across the Pacific in the Second World War, up the ridgelines of Korea, through the rice paddies of Vietnam, and into the deserts of Iraq. This is their story.

How the Wolfhounds Got Their Name

In 1918 the regiment sailed to Vladivostok as part of the Allied expedition into Siberia. Sent to scout the Trans-Siberian Railway — where thousands of enemy prisoners and Bolshevik forces threatened the port — the men of the 27th marched more than a thousand miles through brutal cold in relentless pursuit of a retreating enemy, all the way to the capture of Blagoveschensk.

The Russians who watched them come had a name for soldiers who hunted that way and would not let go. They called them the Wolfhounds. The regiment took the name as its own. In 1929 it adopted a living mascot — a purebred Russian wolfhound named for Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak — and every mascot since has carried the name. Kolchak and his successors stand for what the regiment has always claimed: utter ferocity in war, and gentle compassion in peace.

Read the full story of Siberia, where the name was earned →

A Timeline of the Regiment

1901 – 1917

Birth of the Regiment

The 27th Infantry was activated into the Regular Army on 12 February 1901 at Fort McPherson, Georgia. Within months it deployed to the Philippines, fighting in the Moro campaigns on Mindanao — service later honored in the regiment’s coat of arms.

1918 – 1920

Siberia

As part of the Allied Expeditionary Force, the regiment guarded the Trans-Siberian Railroad and fought Bolshevik forces in the Russian Far East — and earned the name it carries to this day.

1921 – 1945

Hawaii & the Pacific War

The Wolfhounds made their home at Schofield Barracks in 1921. Assigned to the new 25th “Tropic Lightning” Division in October 1941, they were firing back at Japanese aircraft from the barracks rooftops on 7 December 1941. They fought across the Pacific — Guadalcanal, the Northern Solomons, and Luzon — earning a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.

1945 – 1950

The Gentle Wolfhounds

During the occupation of Japan the regiment took the orphans of the Holy Family Home in Osaka under its wing — a bond that continues to this day, and that earned them a second name: the Gentle Wolfhounds.

1950 – 1954

Korea

The Wolfhounds deployed to Korea in July 1950. As the Eighth Army’s “Fire Brigade” they counterattacked wherever the line broke — earning three Presidential Unit Citations for SsangYong-Ni, the defense of Taegu, and the crossing of the Han River that retook Seoul.

1966 – 1971

Vietnam

The Wolfhounds arrived in South Vietnam in January 1966 and stayed five years. Operating from Cu Chi in Tay Ninh Province, they fought through Operations Attleboro, Cedar Falls, and Junction City, the Tet Offensives of 1968 and 1969, and the 1970 incursion into Cambodia, earning a Valorous Unit Citation. They were among the last of the 25th Division to come home, in April 1971. Hear from the men who were there →

1987 – Today

The Watch Continues

Reassigned over the years to the 7th Infantry Division and back, the Wolfhounds served in Honduras, Panama, the Gulf War, and Iraq, and answered the call at home — from hurricane relief on Kauai to humanitarian missions across the Pacific. The pack endures.

Honors

The Regiment carries more than twenty-nine battle streamers and eleven citations on its colors.

Medal of Honor Recipients

• 1Lt Charles G. Bickham — Philippines, 1902
• 1Lt George C. Shaw — Lake Lanao, Philippines, 1903
• Maj Charles W. Davis — Guadalcanal, 1943
• SSgt Raymond H. Cooley — Luzon, Philippines, 1945
• Cpl John W. Collier — Korea, 1950 (killed shielding his comrades from a grenade)
• Capt Reginald B. Desiderio — Korea, 1950 (killed defending his command post)
• Capt Lewis L. Millett — Korea, 1951 (led one of the last great bayonet charges in U.S. history)
• Cpl Benito Martinez — Korea, 1952 (held his post alone for six hours)

The Wolfhounds in Vietnam

The First Wolfhounds — the 1st Battalion — arrived in South Vietnam in January 1966; the Second Wolfhounds, the 2nd Battalion, followed. For five years they made their home at the great base camp at Cu Chi, in Tay Ninh Province northwest of Saigon. It was a sprawling city of its own — built, as the men would learn, directly over a hidden Viet Cong tunnel network that ran beneath the very ground they slept on.

Tet, 1968

When the Viet Cong shattered their own declared truce and struck during Tet in 1968, both battalions of Wolfhounds were airlifted into the Saigon area to reinforce the units defending the capital. On the 31st of January, an ambush patrol from the 1st Battalion killed fifteen of the enemy and captured a 75mm recoilless rifle. The Wolfhounds were, as ever, sent where the fighting was worst.

The Fire Support Bases

Operating along the Cambodian border, the battalions fought from a string of fire support bases the Army pushed up against the infiltration routes — bait, the men understood, to draw the North Vietnamese into the open. On 23 February 1969, the Battle for Fire Support Base Diamond cost Charlie Company of the 2nd Battalion nine men in a single day. A year later, on 2 April 1970, the 1st Platoon of that same company was ambushed in the open at the Renegade Woods. The men who were there tell it best.

The Cost

The Wolfhounds took some of the heaviest casualties in the 25th Infantry Division. Nearly a thousand men of the two battalions did not come home. We remember them, by name, on our memorial wall.