US DEPARTS THE PHILIPPINES

The presence of American military bases in the Philippines was a consequence of our acquisition of that archipelago in 1898 after the Spanish-American war.  When independence was granted to the Republic of the Philippines after WWII the US retained control of her military installations under a 99-year lease starting 27 March 1947.  However, in deference to growing concerns over the US presence, under the Eisenhower administration in 1959, the 99-year term of the lease was shortened by 56 years to 16 September 1991.

In a Cold War dominated world of the 1980s, America viewed its bases in the Philippines, particularly Naval Station Subic Bay, as, “A vital link in the defense of freedom,” and in 1989 talks began on the possible renewal of the Bases Agreement.  However chief negotiators Richard L. Armitage of the US and Raul Manglapus of the Corazon Aquino administration were far apart on the terms of an extension.  Too, a growing public movement against the US presence was founded in sentiments dating from WWII, with Franklin Roosevelt’s “Europe first” war policy.  Thus, on September 10^th, 1991, the 23-member Philippine Senate rejected a final American $2 billion total aid package by a margin of four votes.  The best the pro-American Aquino government could achieve was a three-year extension to accomplish a permanent American withdrawal.

The dismantling of our Philippine bases now began in earnest.  A decision to abandon Clark AFB, that had been ravaged by the Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption in June of 1991, had already been approved by US planners.  At Subic, 50,000 tons of ordnance was destroyed or removed, and 5900 servicemen, 3900 dependents and 214 pets were shipped out.  The fleet replenishment squadron VRC-50 was relocated to Guam, and the drydocks USS MACHINIST (AFDB-8), RESOURCEFUL (AFDM-5) and ADEPT (ADDL-23) were towed to other Pacific facilities.  In what was termed the “biggest yard sale in history,” 450,000 tons of material were sold at 15-cents on the dollar–the Philippine government buying up $26 million in goods.  Outside the gates of Subic, the city of Olongapo formed the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) to facilitate conversion of the massive 630,300 acre facility into an economic free-trade zone.

On 30 September 1992 Naval Station Subic Bay closed, following the other facilities at Camp John Hay, Camp Wallace, Capas Tarlac and San Miguel.  The last remaining US assets were consolidated to NAS Cubi Point.  Then on this day, COMUSNAVPHIL officially ceased to exist as RADM Thomas Mercer stepped off Cubi Point’s Alava Pier onto the brow of USS BELLEAU WOOD (LHA-3), and the last 800 US sailors and Marines departed the Republic of the Philippines.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  1 DEC 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Branigin, William.  “Philippines Sets Compromise on Closing of U.S. Naval Base:  Aquino, Senate Agree on 3-Year Withdrawal Period.”  The Washington Post, 3 October 1991, p. A-37.

Branigin, William.  “U.S. Military Ends Role in Philippines:  After 94 Years, Navy Leaves with Parade, Tears, Questions.”  The Washington Post, 24 November 1992, pp. A-1, A-17.

Burlage, John.  “The End of an Era:  Packing Up and Shipping Out at Subic Bay.”  Navy Times, 30 November 1992, pp. 12, 14.

Burlage, John.  “The Last of the Last to Say Good-Bye.”  Navy Times, 30 November 1992, pp. 14-15.

Dutcher, Roger.  “Subic Bay’s Last Days.”  Surface Warfare, September/October 1992, pp. 20-21.

Gregor, A. James and Virgilio Aganon.  The Philippine Bases:  U.S. Secuity Risk.  Washington, DC: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1987, pp. 33-47.

Oberdorfer, Don.  “U.S. Bases Rejected in Philippines:  Cheney Says Subic Bay Facility Will be Closed if Decision Stands.”  The Washington Post, 10 September 1991, pp. A-1, A-12.

“Philippines to US: Leases on Bases Will End in ’92.”  The Washington Post, 16 May 1990, p. A-7.

Shenon, Philip.  “U.S. Will Abandon Volcano-Ravaged Air Base, Manila is Told.”  New York Times, 16 July 1991, p. A-6.

Sicam, Paulynn.  “Pressure Mounts to End Bases Pact.”  Christian Science Monitor, 14 May 1990, p. 3.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  For centuries before the appearance of Europeans, the Philippine islands were economically exploited by Asian powers, largely China.  Magellan claimed the islands in March 1526 for his Spanish King Philip.  For three hundred years Spain dominated the islands, setting up the famous Manila-Mexico trade.  Once a year a gold and treasure laden galleon would leave Manila taking a northerly route through the Pacific.  After a voyage of many months, they would make landfall at Cape Mendicino in California, and from there hug the coast to Acapulco.  The islands remained under Spanish domination until 1898, when CAPT George Dewey defeated the Spanish Fleet in a decisive naval action in Manila Bay.  Along with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam, the Philippines was ceded to the United States at the close of the Spanish-American war.

The only remaining official US presence in the Philippines is the American Memorial Cemetery outside Manila in which 17,206 American servicement killed in WWII and 36,279 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines whose remains have never been found are memorialized.

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                                             25 SEPTEMBER 1899

                                     THE CAPTURE OF URDANETA

The autumn of 1898 saw the end of the Spanish-American war and the ceding of the Philippine Islands from Spain to the United States.  Militant Filipinos who had been struggling against Spanish colonial rule shifted their animosities toward their new stewards.  For the next four years the US countered this insurgent uprising–the Navy’s roles including patrolling inshore waters, providing gunfire support, and landing Marines at coastal and riverine jump-off’s.  It was during one such patrol that the 70-foot gunboat USS URDANETA ran aground in the Orani River on 17 September 1899.  Naval Cadet Welborn C. Wood and his eight-man crew worked for days at freeing their boat but had their efforts interrupted on the 25^th.  Insurgents discovered the stranded URDANETA and opened fire from the densely jungled riverbank.  Wood’s men sprang to action but found defense against an unseen enemy difficult.  Wood and half his crew were killed in the fire fight.  The survivors escaped overboard but were quickly captured.  URDANETA fell to the enemy, the only naval vessel to be captured during this “Philippine Insurrection,” as it was known in America.

Elsewhere, US Marines and Army soldiers found the land campaign an unwelcome departure from our past wartime experiences.  The outmatched enemy abandoned conventional tactics in favor of guerrilla warfare.  Enemy troops blended imperceptibly into the local populace.  Marine patrols might enter a rural village to the welcoming greetings of peasants working their rice paddies–only to be ambushed further down the road by these same peasant-insurgents.  Jungle patrols encountered booby traps with spring-loaded spears or poison-tipped arrows.  More than a few Marines fell victim to pungy pits lined with sharpened bamboo spears.  Random acts of terrorism became frequent.  On one Sunday morning, an American sentry playing solitaire was approached by an innocent looking street vendor selling eggs.  Before the sentry could look up however, he was decapitated by a machete the vendor had secreted under his produce.  Reports surfaced of American captives whose bodies were found hideously mutilated.  One corpse was discovered near an anthill, buried to the neck and covered in sugar.

Employing tactics we would face again in the 1960s Vietnam war–tactics that would later be formalized by Mao Tse Tung–Philippine nationalist leader Emilio Aguinaldo waged a campaign designed to dishearten the American public.  He hoped (in vain) for a Democratic victory in the 1900 American presidential election, judging candidate William Jennings Bryan to be more supportive of Philippine independence.  But unlike Vietnam, the Philippine Insurrection failed to outlast American public support.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  29 SEP 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 7 “T-V”.  GPO, Washington, DC, p. 421, 1981.

Karnow, Stanley.  In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines.  Ballantine Books, New York, NY, pp. 177-87, 1989.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, pp. 101-02.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  URDANETA had been captured from the Spanish Navy during our 1898 war.  She was named by the Spanish in honor of Andres de Urdaneta (1498-1568), a friar and explorer credited with the second circumnavigation of the globe (after Magellan).  “Urdaneta’s route” across the Pacific from Luzon to Central America was used by Spain’s Manila galleons.  Urdaneta City in the Pangasinan Province of Luzon, near the Lingayen Gulf, also remembers the friar.  URDANETA was recaptured in 1900 and served off and on in survey work, patrols, and as a yard tug until 1916.  Her ultimate fate after 1916 is unknown.

          Cadet Wood is remembered with the WWII veteran Clemson-class destroyer USS WELBORN C. WOOD (DD-195). WOOD was later transferred to the US Coast Guard and ultimately to Britian, with whom she served as HMS CHESTERFIELD.

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                                                          PT-31

Matters had run afoul for LT Edward G. DeLong and the 12-man crew of PT-31 soon after splitting company with PT-34.  The fuel strainers of his wing engines clogged, and the center engine failed shortly with an airlock in the cooling system.  They drifted dead in the water as an enemy 3″ gun on Ilinin Point opened some ineffective but pesky fire.  The powerless PT-31 next struck fast on a reef.  For three hours the crew labored to revive the engines and free the boat from an ebbing tide.  But when the reverse gear burned out and dawn threatened to reveal his boat, DeLong had no choice but to abandon ship.  The crew fashioned a raft out of mattresses and the cover of the engine compartment and slid over the side.  DeLong stayed behind to puncture the gas lines and rig grenades.  By the time he lowered himself into the water, his shipmates had drifted away.  The Lieutenant swam ashore alone.  PT-31 exploded and burned.

At first light, DeLong located his crew after following their tracks along the beach.  He was saddened to learn that three had become lost during the night without a trace.  Cloistered in the bushes along the shore, DeLong took stock of the situation.  They had but one rifle and six pistols, some scraps of canvas, no food, and no water.  Furthermore, their chance hideout was within earshot of some loud Japanese soldiers in the nearby jungle.  DeLong set a watch in the trees and instructed that any snooping Japanese be allowed into the hideout to be clubbed, as a gunshot was too risky.  DeLong’s first plan, that of walking along the beach to the American zone, was thwarted by the proximity of the fighting.  Then one of the crew spotted two bancas (native canoes) about a half mile away on the beach.  These bancas now held their only hope.

The nine crept from their thicket at twilight.  The smaller of the bancas proved more seaworthy, and the crew rigged a makeshift sail using canvas and barbed wire.  They shoved off at 2000, the smaller banca towing the larger.  Japanese voices could again be heard within a couple hundred yards, so DeLong deployed the sail only after having paddled some distance from the shore.  Again, fate frowned on the party, for within an hour both bancas capsized and their gear was lost.  Through judicious use of two makeshift bailers, the bancas were righted, and the party cleared Panibutujan Point.  About 0130 they rounded Napo Point only to be met by a strong headwind.  Making no headway after an hour of exhaustive paddling, DeLong put ashore near the point.  As luck would have it, they were spotted after dawn by Philippine Army forces and taken to a nearby US Army unit.  Harried and tired, they were nevertheless back at their base in Mariveles by 1730 the evening of the 20^th.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  26 JAN 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Breuer, William B.  Devil Boats:  The PT War Against Japan.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987, pp. 26-31.

Breuer, William B.  Sea Wolf:  A Biography of John D. Bulkeley, USN.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1989, pp. 40-43.

Bulkley, Robert J., Jr.  At Close Quarters:  PT Boats in the United States Navy.  Washington, DC: GPO, Department of the Navy, 1962, pp. 9-16.

White, W.L.  They Were Expendable.  New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1942, pp. 66-76.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In March of 1942 Bulkeley used the remaining serviceable boats of MTB-3 to carry GEN Douglas MacArthur to safety.  Those squadron members for whom there was no room on that trip, including DeLong, were ordered to join a nearby Army unit on Bataan.  The surrender of American forces on 6 May 1942 resulted in the capture of DeLong and those unfortunate MTB-3 shipmates.  DeLong was beheaded by his captors on 2 July 1942.  LTJG DeLong received the Silver Star for his actions this night and the Navy Cross for his sustained performance with MTB-3 from February to April 1942.  (Three US warships have borne the name “DeLong,” TB-28, DD-129, and DE-684.  However, all three remember other heroes with the same surname.)

Devotees of Hollywood war movies will recognize this story and others about MTB-3 as the model for the 1945 John Ford production based on William White’s book above, They Were Expendable.  The film stars Robert Montgomery as “LT John Brinkley” (based on real-life LT Bulkeley) and John Wayne as his highly fictionalized XO, “LTJG Rusty Ryan.”  They Were Expendable was nominated for two Academy Awards, for best sound recording and best visual effects.

The post PT-31 (cont. from 19 Jan) appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                          ACTION IN SUBIC BAY

The first five weeks of our involvement in World War II found US forces battling a Japanese onslaught in the Philippines.  On Luzon we were pushed farther and farther down the Bataan Peninsula, cut off from reinforcement.  US Naval forces of the Asiatic Fleet were equally pressed throughout far eastern seas, leaving the six PT boats of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 under LT John D. Bulkeley to do their sole best against the enemy in the Philippines.  By this date, PT-32 and 33 had already been lost when the former’s engines had been ruined rescuing 196 survivors from the mined civilian steamer Corregidor and the latter grounded while on patrol in Manila Bay.  Weeks of unrelenting action coupled with contaminated fuel and shortages of spare parts had taken a toll on the four remaining 77-foot boats, particularly on the engines.  The crews, too, were worn from the stress.

Regardless, on January 18^th, Bulkeley received a message from Army headquarters requesting his assistance in routing four enemy vessels, including a destroyer and a large transport, from Binanga Bay, a smaller bay within Subic Bay.  After nightfall Bulkeley took PT-34 in company with LT Edward G. DeLong in PT-31 and headed to that location.  Upon entering Subic Bay they split up, PT-31 creeping up the eastern bay and Bulkeley skirting the western edge. As Bulkeley approached their rendezvous point near Grande Island, shore fire erupted on all sides.  PT-31 was nowhere in sight, but 500 yards ahead could be seen two masts of a large freighter.  Flasher signals challenged from several directions.  Bulkeley fired two torpedoes.  One exploded against the hull of the freighter a minute later, the other lodged fast in its tube, running hot.  PT-34 turned for sea with her throttles wide open.

Without water resistance against the propeller blades, the turbine of the hot-running torpedo would take only minutes to overheat and shatter, showering the vicinity with white-hot fragments.  To make matters worse, the bow wash splashing over the torpedo tube was advancing the weapon’s arming impeller.  Once armed, a blow of 8 pounds would be sufficient to detonate the warhead.  TMC John Martino jumped into action.  Straddling the hissing torpedo that hung half out of its tube, Martino stuffed the first thing he could find, toilet paper, into the impeller to stop its advance.  As the PT lurched across each wave Martino dangled over the railing to disassemble the casing and close the valve in the air line.  Once beyond the range of friendly ships, the weapon was jettisoned.

The following morning Army observers on Mariveles Mountain reported watching a 5,000-ton freighter sink in Binanga Bay.  The shelling of US positions in the western Bataan area slackened as the 5.5″ guns of the freighter proved to be the source.  However, no word was received from the missing PT-31 or her crew…

Learn the fate of PT-31 tomorrow…

Breuer, William B.  Devil Boats:  The PT War Against Japan.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987, pp. 26-31.

Breuer, William B.  Sea Wolf:  A Biography of John D. Bulkeley, USN.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1989, pp. 40-43.

Bulkley, Robert J., Jr.  At Close Quarters:  PT Boats in the United States Navy.  Washington, DC: GPO, Department of the Navy, 1962, pp. 9-16.

White, W.L.  They Were Expendable.  New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1942, pp. 66-76.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The Japanese had taken Subic Bay around Christmas and were establishing a base to support operations down the western shore of the Bataan Peninsula.  Binanga Bay is opposite Grande Island within the eastern area of Subic Bay.  It formed part of the protected waters of our former Naval Station at Subic Bay; for those still familiar with that erstwhile base, it was the site of the ammunition pier for the naval magazine.  However, the wreck on the northern side of this bay frequented by sport divers in the 1980s is not the freighter sunk by Bulkeley.

Grande Island was later used as a detention center where Filipino males old enough to bear arms were executed as part of the Japanese effort to pacify the region.

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                                              USS OMMANEY BAY

The twin-engine Japanese medium bomber, converted into a flying bomb herself, dove toward USS OMMANEY BAY (CVE-79).  To the American crew it was a complete surprise!  Screened by the numerous small Philippine islands nearby, Ommaney’s radar never picked up the plane.  Only New Mexico (BB-40) detected her presence but was not able to shoot her down.  The suicide plane clipped the escort carrier’s island, then crashed her forward starboard flight deck.  Two bombs penetrated, the first exploded among fully fueled aircraft on the hangar deck.  The second penetrated farther, cutting the fire main on the second deck and exploding in the forward engine room.  An oil fire quickly erupted, filling the ship with acrid black smoke.  Communications from the bridge were paralyzed.  In an instant, the fires blazed too intensely for damage controlmen to make headway.  Power failed throughout the ship, aircraft gasoline tanks exploded, and cooked-off .50 caliber ammunition peppered the decks!

OMMANEY BAY was part of the task force intent on re-taking the main Philippine Island of Luzon.  The force had left Leyte Gulf and headed west through the Surigao Strait, then turned north through the Sulu Sea.  They were to converge on the Lingayen Gulf northwest of Manila, the site of the Allied landings.  Kamikazes had been a constant threat throughout the Philippine campaign.  Indeed, this same afternoon another kamikaze missed LUNGA POINT (CVE-94) by only 50 yards.  Now it was OMMANEY BAY’s turn.

By 1730 the fires had spread throughout the hangar deck.  The flight deck above became untenable as flames and smoke engulfed it as well.  Burned and injured sailors cried out in agony.  Nearby destroyers attempted to close the stricken “baby flattop,” to help put out her fires–only to be driven off by the intense heat and flying debris.  Worse, the flames threatened to reach the carrier’s stockpile of torpedoes!

Burned and injured sailors were strapped to cots, covered with kapok life vests, and lowered over the side with two able swimmers accompanying each.  Then about 1750, a massive explosion sprayed metal shards that killed two sailors aboard EICHENBERGER (DE-202).  Skipper CAPT H.I. Young had no choice but to order “Abandon Ship!” and at 1812 he, too, went over the side.  Six minutes later the flames reached the torpedo lockers.

Oppressive heat and secondary explosions from the flaming carrier spelled her doom.  In all 93 OMMANEY BAY mates were lost and 65 injured.  BURNS (DD-588) was ordered to scuttle the stricken carrier.  Seven other OMMANEY BAY survivors died as well when rescuing ships were also crashed by kamikazes in the ensuing days.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 JAN 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cooney, David M.  A Chronology of the U.S. Navy:  1775-1965.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 358.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 154.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol XIII  The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindinao, the Visayas.  Little Brown and Co., Boston, MA, 1959, pp. 99-101.

Poolman, Kenneth.  Allied Escort Carriers of World War Two in Action.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1988, pp. 235-36.

Robbins, Gary.  “Wreckage Found Off Philippines is WWII Aircraft Carrier Which Deployed from San Diego.”  military.com website, 12 July 2023.  AT: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/-7/12/wreckage-found-off-philippines-wwii-aircraft-carrier-which-deployed-from-san-diego.html, retrieved 12 July 2023.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The Casablanca-class “Jeep carriers” were the most prolific of WWII, comprising fully one-third all of US carriers commissioned during the conflict.  Hers was the first class of escort carrier built from the keel up for that purpose (rather than from conversion of merchant hulls).  Most were named for bays, inlets, or peninsulas—Ommaney Bay is in southern Alaska.

In 2019 the wreck of OMMANEY BAY was discovered off Mindanao, Philippine Islands.  The Naval History and Heritage Command confirmed the identity of the carrier in 2023.

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                   LT ONODA’S THIRTY-YEAR WAR

In August 1944, a young Japanese 2^nd LT in training, Hiroo Onoda, reported to the Futamata Army Training Squadron at the Nakano Military School.  Over the next five months, he learned the guerrilla warfare tactics of the “Pacification Squadrons,” special Japanese commando units inserted behind enemy lines to disrupt and harass.  On December 31^st he arrived on Lubang, Philippines, a six by eighteen-mile island twenty miles northwest of Mindoro.  Mindoro had fallen to the Allies in mid-December, and the Japanese garrison on Lubang had been ordered back to Manila–replaced by Onoda’s 110-man Pacification Squadron.  On 3 January Onoda watched an American flotilla bypass Lubang on its way to the Linguyan Gulf.  Onoda and his squadron reasoned they were now cut off and on their own.

Rice and supplies quickly ran short and morale among the Japanese soldiers deteriorated.  By 28 February, when a US Marine battalion landed on Lubang, those who remained had largely lost the will to fight.  In four days, the Marines killed or captured about half.  The rest fled to the impassably jungled hills.  At Japan’s surrender in August, leaflets were dropped that included a copy of the Japanese 14^th Army surrender document.  However, this, and later news of the total capitulation in September, did not sway the 50 or so Japanese hiding on Lubang, and it was not until April 1946 that most surrendered.  Now only LT Onoda and three companions remained; CPL Shoichi Shimada, PFC Kinshichi Kozuka and PFC Yuichi Akatsu.

Trained in propaganda and the ways of the insurgent, Onoda convinced himself that the repeated messages left for him by Philippine and American authorities were tricks.  At Futamata, Onoda had been conditioned to expect a 100-year war, and he and his small band steeled themselves for such a fight.  However, in the Spring of 1950, a discouraged Akatsu drifted away and surrendered.  On 7 May 1954, Shimada was shot and killed by a Philippine Army search party.  Onoda and Kozuka “fought” on, gathering intelligence and holding out against an ultimate Japanese victory.  Incredibly, they misinterpreted news of the Korean and Indochinese wars, the emergence of China, and the revitalization of the home economy as evidence of Japan’s continued aggression–on an economic front.  The two evaded search parties, discounting as “fakes,” notes, photos, and family memorabilia left for them.  In short they convinced themselves that the 100-year war was underway.  Then on 19 October 1972, Kozuka was killed by farmers while stealing rice.  Onoda held out alone until this day, when disheartened but not demoralized, he surrendered to a free-lance journalist who had come to Lubang for that purpose.  He was surprised to return to Japan a hero, having become a cause célèbre during his 30-year war.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  15 MAR 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Associated Press.  “A Former Japanese Soldier Returns to his Personal Battlefield.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 May 1996, pp. A-14, A-26.

Onoda, Hiroo.  No Surrender:  My Thirty-Year War.  New York, NY: Kodansha International, 1974.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Though Onoda is the last known Japanese soldier to surrender, his story is not one in isolation.  Similar hold-out soldiers had been discovered earlier in Guam and on other South Pacific islands.

Onoda escaped capture by keeping constantly on the move through remote jungled regions not frequented by locals.  He stole food, clothing, matches and batteries from farmers.  As such, his presence, indeed even his identity as a WWII soldier, was known throughout his “fight.”  The locals referred to his band over the years simply as those “mountain devils.”

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