In July 1931 Soutter signed on to be a crew member on the maiden sail of the Atlantis, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's first research vessel.
Captain Bartlett conducted the hydrographic and mineral studies and Soutter gathered plankton and fish samples.
The expedition was also commissioned to bring back a live baby walrus for the Bronx Zoo and to make plaster casts of a narwhal, a small Arctic whale, for a future Smithsonian exhibit.
On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg, one of the largest zeppelins ever built, exploded in midair over Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey where it was attempting to land.
Soutter, fluent in German, assisted in many surgical procedures on Hindenburg victims, including Captain Pruss.
With the outbreak of World War II, Soutter believed that a blood bank was critical for civil defense.
Soutter helped to create an elaborate system for managing blood and began work advertising for volunteer donors.
When the Cocoanut Grove fire occurred in Boston in November 1942, large amounts of stored plasma from the MGH blood bank played a major role in the treatment of the 500 injured.
On December 26, 1944, Soutter was the first volunteer when General McAuliffe called for medical assistance for the wounded troops who were surrounded at Bastogne in Belgium near the French border.
Within the next couple of days, the First and Third Army Divisions broke through the enemy perimeter and began to make their way to liberate Bastogne.
In mid-January 1945, Soutter and each member of his medical team received the Silver Star (see left below), the second highest military medal awarded, for "conspicuous gallantry in action."
In 2002 the World War II Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge Association named their Worcester chapter after Soutter.
[1] After Bastogne, Soutter was attached to the 42nd Field Hospital, where he worked with Corporal James K. Sunshine, Surgical Technician 3rd Platoon.