Sampan sailor

the long version

Some of the most exciting and heroic stories of World War II come from the exploits of Americans helping the Chinese resist the Japanese invaders - the Flying Tigers, for example and the pilots who flew the "Hump," the perilous supply route over the Himalayas from India. Here is the true tale of Clayton Mishler. A young Navy enlisted man, Mishler was on the ground with the Chinese forces in a unit that was one of the best-kept secrets of World War II, the Sino-American Cooperative Organization. Calling themselves the "Rice Paddy Navy," he and his fellow sailors lived off the land and ranged throughout China's spectacular countryside, training Chinese guerrillas, keeping the U.S. Fleet apprised of weather conditions and Japanese movements, and risking their lives on deadly ambushes. Mishler's adventures movingly display the bonds of friendship that were forged between the Chinese people and a small band of Americans fighting alongside them against the brutal Japanese Army. Sampan Sailor is a vivid personal portrait of China and of a young man's exciting war in an unforgettably exotic place.