Gen. Douglas MacArthur said he would do it. President George W. Bush is getting ready to do it. There are millions of former U.S. servicemembers who could do it. 

That’s right: More opportunities now exist to return to the Philippines.

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’ve been to the Philippines at least once. Maybe you stopped for a port call as your ship was serviced at Subic Bay. Perhaps you spent several years with your family at Clark Air Base (AB), or indulged in a memorable week of R & R during a tour in Vietnam.

There is no doubt that American veterans cherish their memories of time spent in the Philippines. Why else would the entire officers club bar from Cubi Point Naval Air Station (NAS) have been dismantled, shipped, and rebuilt as a major part of the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla.? 

The intimate connection between this collection of more than 7,000 islands and U.S. military personnel lasted for nearly a century, sandwiched between Adm. George Dewey’s attacks on the Spanish fleet in Manila harbor in 1898 and the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1992. 

Now, more than 10 years after the Philippine Senate voted to send the Americans home, the Philippine department of tourism is teaming with an American company to lure servicemembers back. Rear Adm. Dan McKinnon, USN-Ret., advises the Philippine department of tourism and serves as chair of the Subic Bay Alumni Foundation. McKinnon describes the goal as “rekindling the positive feelings between the people of both countries to build a new affection between veterans and the Philippines.”

Forging new connections

The joint venture between the Philippines and Military Historical Tours of Alexandria, Va., is a small piece of a larger effort to forge new connections between the two countries. The Philippines recently hosted a joint military exercise with more than 3,500 Filipino and U.S. forces working together to repel an imaginary foreign invader. Bringing U.S. veterans back as tourists will be a shot in the arm to the growing Philippine tourist industry as well as a reminder to Americans that the strategic value of this well-positioned island nation remains strong.

“We need the Philippines and they need us,” explains Col. Warren Wiedhahn, USMC-Ret., president of Military Historical Tours. “There are a lot of interesting political dynamics going on, and there’s no question that Subic Bay is the biggest, deepest bay in that part of the world.”

Wiedhahn is well-qualified to lead the charge of veterans returning to the Philippines, with 16 years of experience operating military-related tours for veterans, historians, and family members around the world after a 33-year military career. He jumped at the chance to work directly with the Philippine government in what he hopes will be a series of “reunion-type” trips. The first major excursion is slated for Oct. 17-27, and Wiedhahn wants to take “as many people as possible.” 

The Philippine government plans to roll out the red carpet for those who join this first reunion trip, which will include everything from memorial ceremonies at military sites to an old-fashioned Philippine-style outdoor bazaar. 

During a visit to the United States in May, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo extended an invitation to all American servicemembers to “return to the Philippines.” She also extended the invitation to President Bush, who accepted and plans to visit the Philippines in October.

What to expect

Ed Henry, who served with the Marine Corps, remembers Subic Bay. “I remember it with a passion,” he says, echoing the sentiments of many veterans whose first taste of the Philippines came in their youth as they sailed in and out of the deep-water ports in the Pacific. “I was young and stupid and having the biggest adventure of my life thousands of miles away from home,” he says with a smile, recalling the joy of “a cold San Miguel and listening to some of the best rock ‘n’ roll music in Asia.”

Today, Henry, who works with Military Historical Tours, looks at the Philippines through different eyes. He sees the country as a prime tourism destination, citing the “beauty of the South China Sea and the beaches, lush forests that have remained intact in Bataan and Zambales, and the rich historical legacy of the country.”

Perhaps that all sounds familiar. But returning veterans also might be surprised by how the country has changed. After the official turnover of the last of the American military bases to the Philippine government in 1992, local government officials worked hard to transform the communities into successful, thriving economic zones.

Perhaps the difference is most noticeable in the city of Olongapo. “You cannot visit Olongapo without realizing the positively tremendous transformation that has taken place,” says Henry, who remembers the city as “sin town,” a place of drinking and late nights. McKinnon recalls Olongapo as a place “where for a few dollars you could hear music and get a good beer.” But that all ended when the double whammy of the closing of U.S. bases and the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 left the city devastated.

Today, McKinnon says, Olongapo is a “model city.” The transformation is so complete that in 1998 Olongapo became the first Asian city to receive the Mayors and Cities for Peace Prize from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. The city has received numerous awards for being child friendly, and the mayor, Kate Gordon, has been honored for her work. 

New sights and old

Driving into the entrance of the old Subic Bay Naval Base brings both memories and surprise, says Maj. Dale Robinson, USMC-Ret., who recently traveled to the Philippines for the first time since his family left after a three-year tour in the 1980s. A sign at the entrance informs visitors they are entering the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, the first indication of the dramatic economic transformation of the former naval base by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. “The entire base is now a tax-free import zone for raw materials and the manufacture and export of finished products,” explains Robinson.

“Where the Navy exchange used to be, there are two new industrial parks,” says Robinson, noting that FedEx, which took over the Cubi Point NAS as its Asian hub, is key to the entire enterprise. The former bachelor enlisted quarters, which Robinson says was jokingly dubbed the “Holiday Inn” during his 1980s tour, now really is a hotel, the Subic International Hotel. And the George Dewey High School, which his children attended, now is a convention center.

While FedEx is the centerpiece of activity at Subic Bay, ups is expanding its operations at the former Clark AB, which was covered in volcanic ash when the United States turned over the keys to the Philippine government. 

Today, returning Air Force veterans will find a number of changes at the former base. The Chambers Hall Bachelor Officers Quarters has been converted to a Holiday Inn. Children of veterans who attended Wurtsmith Memorial School on the base might find it amusing to learn that their former school now is a casino. The familiar sight of the “elephant cage,” a circular array of antenna towers, provides the framework for an amusement park.

A century of history

The American presence in the Philippines dates to the late 18th century, when traders from the fledgling United States began to arrive in the island country in search of new markets. When the United States went to war with Spain a century later, the issues revolved around Spanish colonies in both the Caribbean and the Pacific.

By August 1898, about 10,000 U.S. troops had landed in the Philippines. The Treaty of Paris ended the hostilities, granting the United States the right to purchase the Philippines from Spain for $20 million. The status of the islands later was formalized as an unincorporated territory under U.S. rule. By 1900, 70,000 U.S. troops were in the Philippines.

In 1901, William Howard Taft became the first in a series of “governors general” who managed the civil government of the Philippines for more than three decades. In 1934, the U.S. Congress passed the Philippine Independence Act, providing for Philippine independence 10 years after the establishment of a transitional commonwealth government in 1935. The Japanese invasion of the Philippines in late 1941 disrupted this schedule, but the United States granted the Philippines independence July 4, 1946.

The following year, the Philippines signed the Military Bases Agreement, granting the United States control of its 23 military installations in the country for 99 years. Despite the agreement, some opposition groups objected to the presence of the U.S. bases, viewing it as a reminder of the country’s colonial past. 

A 1959 amendment included a provision that either party could terminate the agreement with one year’s notice after 1991. By 1990, only a handful of the original 23 installations remained active in the Philippines, the most important being Subic Bay Naval Base, the adjoining Cubi Point NAS, and Clark AB. Those bases were closed in 1992, after a vote by the Philippine Senate.

The ousting of the Americans from the Philippines, something the United States would have preferred not to have happened, raises a question: Why should veterans return to a country that essentially kicked them out? McKinnon has a quick response: “The affection of the Philippine people for Americans has not changed. There are hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who supported the United States in war and in peace, many dying alongside Americans. Thousands [of people] lined the streets of Olongapo as we departed.” 

McKinnon believes there are strong reasons to support a continuing and strong relationship with the Philippines. “Only eight of the 24 members of the Philippine Senate voted against base retention … a real vote of the people might have had a different outcome,” he says. “A decade has passed, and today the Philippines is a new type of ally, standing first among our friends in the war on terrorism.”

A trail of memory 

The first of what representatives of Military Historical Tours hope will become an annual reunion visit to the Philippines includes an ambitious schedule, one that will show participating veterans pieces of their own past as well as the heritage of those who went before.

The 10-day trip begins with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Manila American Cemetery, located at the site of the former Fort William McKinley. The largest of the cemeteries built and administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission, the cemetery contains 17,206 graves of those who gave their lives in the Pacific theater of World War II. There are 20 cases of brothers buried side by side and 3,744 graves of unknown soldiers.

The tour moves to the island of Corregidor, the largest of five islands at the entrance to Manila Bay. Boats dock near the spot where MacArthur left the island under orders from President Franklin Roosevelt on March 12, 1942, after surviving relentless bombardment from Japanese forces for three months. Nearly three years would pass before MacArthur fulfilled his famous “I shall return” pledge. 

The tour includes a visit to the Pacific War Memorial, built on the highest point on the island by the United States in the 1960s. The memorial dome features an opening through which the sun spotlights a centerpiece once each year about May 6, the day Corregidor fell. A sound and light production highlights key events of the war inside the Malinta Tunnel, which housed the U.S. Air Forces Far East headquarters during the bombardments of late 1941 and 1942. 

The second day ends with a reception at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, one of the largest U.S. missions in the world. A plaque marks the spot where on Feb. 21, 1945, MacArthur raised the American flag atop the battered flagpole from which the last American flag had been lowered, burned, and its ashes buried to prevent its capture by the Japanese army on Jan. 2, 1942. The flagpole remains standing today. 

Following are visits to Subic Bay, including a “Jeepney” parade for the group at the new Olongapo Convention Center. Participants then can select among tours of Cubi Point, the former Clark AB, and the Bataan Peninsula. 

The trip up the Bataan Peninsula follows the old coast highway, along the 112-kilometer route of the Bataan Death March. Each kilometer bears a memorial marker, but many are in disrepair. The Filipino-American Memorial Endowment is spearheading efforts to replace the markers through contributions. The day ends with visits to the former prison sites of Camp O’Donnell and Cabanatuan.

New and old bonds

Veterans returning to the Philippines may want to visit old haunts, explore the heroic history of those who passed before, view the lush tropical forests of this beautiful land, or help forge new ties between Americans and Filipinos. 

Philippine President Macapagal-Arroyo calls the trip a sentimental journey that will allow veterans to “rekindle the bond that you have formed with your long-lost friends.” Ed Henry sums up his primary reason for wanting to return to the Philippines this way: “The purely Philippine attitude of friendly welcome to strangers is still there in every village and every city.”