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Air Force Studs
Even as a youngster, I was a fan of the Air Force. Dad was a Marine Corps pilot but never forgot his missions working with the Army Air Corps (AF in WWII). He was based in Ulithi, with most of the US Navy and Army Air Corps, before the invasion McArthur pushed for in the Leyte invasion. Army transports stressed getting all the support the troops needed and Air Corps CO asked Dad’s CO if Marine Corps aviators could help. No problem. So several missions via Peleliu, which Marines and Army had finally secured, to Leyte. So on one trip back, dad had an Army general aboard. Then AA fire from Navy ships, not getting the proper message. Dad’s message “Flag aboard,” even though not the proper term for an Army guy, got through and he survived his closest call in the war.
I loved the air shows at Tinker Air Force Base in OKC as a kid. Then in law school, several of my classmates were AF ROTC. Then they got crappy AF JAGC assignments. North Dakota, Marysville, CA, while I went to NY and San Francisco. Sister married into an Air Force family, father-in-law West Point, brother-in-law AFA. AF ROTC rejected me as I had more than five school parking tickets. OK, the Navy looked good to me. It kept me from getting drafted.
Then on the carrier. In the Tonkin Gulf. And found what the real world was like. Not shuffling papers and flapping my gums in a court martial case. As I said before, amazed by the flyboys. When not trying to deal with crazy sailors and their fascination with Olongapo hookers and drugs. So survived 60 days of chaos and, in ’73, the war was over. At least as far as the US was concerned.
Back to the P.I. in Nov. 1973. Oil price craziness so much more time than usual in port, so we didn’t burn precious fuel. Marcos’ midnight curfew was still in place when he thought the good times enjoyed by our sailors might be a threat. Navy Shore Patrol was very good about getting our drunk sailors off the street before the curfew. But they missed one. An AF major. Recon guy. Impressive record. Who got tagged.
Comes to my office. States that the CO of our ship can’t impose any discipline on him as he is AF. I actually was prepared for this. Showed him the DOD instruction that AF personnel assigned to Navy ships were subject to Navy discipline. Not that it was severe. CO only gave him one night of restriction. So he was free three days later to check out the Manila hookers.
Published in Military
Ah, Olongapo and their entertainment ladies. And Benjie boys. The stories are endless.
I thought I could keep their persistence at bay by telling them I was a chaplain. My brother is a priest, so I knew how to pull it off. A mistake. Rather than leave me alone, they all were good Catholic girls who wanted to confess.
Good one. Always pondered why the local priests always gave the teenage hookers the green light to marry a naive 18 year old sailor probably getting the first good sex in his life. Assume they were thinking long term. The gal would finagle a way to get her poor family to the U.S. Am sure it worked a bunch of times. Our Catholic chaplain was the opposite. The few Catholic sailors got an earful. And then ignored him. The chaplain’s permission was not required.
I don’t know what’s happened to the base hookers after we left. The Filipinos thought we’d hold on to the bases, but we dumped them quickly and that was all positive. Our kids were too rich for the poverty there at that time.
I was told that the amount of military supplies and equipment stolen every year was quite large.