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Very interesting thread for me. My first tour in the Navy was in the Philippines in '67 - '68. I was stationed at a small communications station at San Miguel in Zambales Province, north of the giant US Navy complex at Subic Bay/Cubi Point. (I forget how many miles we were from Subic/Cubi, but it was about an hour or more by bus over very difficult dirt roads.)
San Miguel was a great little base. We had a lovely beach on the South China sea and a few islands (the Capones) just off the shore. We would get Filipino fishermen in their banca boats to take us over there to snorkel.
Olongapo, just outside the Subic gate, was "sin city" personified. Much like Tijuana, I'm told. (Never been to TJ.) But then, its economy was based on the demands of the USN folks who had all the money. If they had demanded art museums, that's how the economy would have responded.
I got to see a number of great places, including Baguio (which was mentioned earlier in the thread.) Also made about a half dozen trips to Manila during my 18 months there. There are many beautiful natural sights that I recall and which are mentioned in some of the posts. But the crime, traffic, etc. also bring back memories from 40+ years ago.
My wife and I have talked about a trip to Australia sometime and if we do it, I want to spend a week or so in the PI to see what it looks like so many years later as part of the trip.
I also recall that when we would drive through many of the small barrios where most people lived in "nipa huts" there would occasionally be a quite nice house, probably of cinder block construction with a nicer stone facing. The word was that those houses belonged to either politicians (many of whom were alleged to be on the take) or retired Navy stewards. (In those days, most stewards in the Navy were Filipinos who enlisted in the USN knowing that they would probably stay stewards their entire careers. Many of them retired and returned to the PI where their Navy pensions allowed them to live very well.)
One final Philippines story: in 1968 I took leave and went back to the States to go to my girlfriend's (now my wife) college graduation. One night I was telling people about the violent nature of Philippine politics and how if you didn't like the person running against you, you just had him killed. Ironically, Robert F. Kennedy was killed that very night, so the PI didn't have a lot on us.
Forgive the rambling....
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friar1610
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