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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                               LIONS, CUBS, AND NAS CUBI POINT

WWII’s clouds were gathering in the late 1930s, and it was increasingly recognized that existing naval bases along our Atlantic and Pacific seaboards would be inadequate to fully support operations thousands of miles distant in Europe or Asia.  Thus, the Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks (BuDOCKS) began a project to develop advanced operational support bases that could be quickly deployed in distant theaters.  To launch this effort, a conference was convened on 23 January 1942 to address the CNO’s concerns that, “…immediate steps be taken to assemble materials and equipment required for four main advanced bases and twelve secondary advanced bases.”  The two forms of advanced bases were codenamed “LIONs” and “CUBs.”  LIONS 1-4 would provide logistic and personnel support for a major fleet group including specific repair capability for submarines, aircraft, and surface ships comparable to services provided with ARs, ADs, and ASs, as well as support for 210 aircraft.  Twelve secondary bases, CUBs 1-12, operated under the guidance of a LION and were exclusively afloat.  They served a task force unit, supporting 4100 sailors and Marines and providing logistics for ships and 105 aircraft.  The 3000 Navy personnel assigned to a CUB included supply and medical staff.  CUBs were moved across the Pacific as the war progressed.  It is not known how the codenames “LION” and “CUB” were derived.

By October 1944 the LION and CUB concept was in full swing.  That same month US forces began retaking the Philippine Islands from Japanese occupation.  Subic Bay, on the island of Luzon, had been a US Navy base before the war, and, after its recapture, it was rapidly revitalized.  BuDOCK’s CUB One was moved there to support the anticipated operations on Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and ultimately the Japanese home islands.  CUB One was positioned afloat, off the quiet fishing village of Banicain, on the jungled point of land opposite the Subic Bay docks.  The area soon became “CUB 1 Point” to Americans.  As the war ended and Naval Station Subic Bay expanded in the years following, the need for a CUB was obviated by more permanent facilities ashore.

Then in 1950, the Korean Conflict necessitated the construction of an airfield in the Philippines.  In an effort that harkened of the Panama Canal’s construction, Mobile Construction Battalions 2, 3, 5, 9, and 11, bulldozed a mountain ridge, backfilling a portion of the bay to create a 10,000-foot runway.  Construction took nearly four years, during which time sailors began shortening “CUB 1 Point” to “Cubi Point.”  On 25 July 1956, NAS Cubi Point was commissioned.  The NAS remaining active until, at Philippine request, our Navy vacated the base in November 1992.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  30 JUL 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

United States Naval Administration in World War II, Chapter VI, Advanced Base Units LIONS, CUBS, and ACORNS.  AT: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Admin-Hist/021-AdvancedBases/AdvanceBases-6.html, retrieved 28 May 2022.

Site visit and Personal History, CAPT James Bloom, Ret.  Naval Station Subic Bay and NAS Cubi Point, October 1988-October 1990.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The LION and CUB concept was further expanded as the war progressed to include advanced shore-based facilities, codenamed “OAKs” and “ACORNs.”

Airfield construction at Cubi Point necessitated the plowing under of the village of Banicain, whose residents were relocated to the town of Olongapo.  The site of the former village now lies under 45 feet of backfill.

The Cubi Point O-Club was perhaps the most popular in the Pacific during the Vietnam era.  In fact, when the base closed in 1992, the Cubi Point O-Club was disassembled, brought home, and reconstructed in its exact floor plan at the NAS Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum.

Urban legend holds that the name “Cubi Point” is an acronym for “Construction Unit Battalion 1,” the unit supposedly responsible for the airfield’s creation.  However, as above, MCB-1 did not participate in the effort.

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                                          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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