I loved NAS Cubi. I would sit on one of (not sure which one but it was near the runway facing out of Subic Bay) the beaches if I was off during the week and watch different planes do touch and go’s. It was even more fun when a carrier group came in and they did carrier quals for carrier landings with Marine pilots.
When I was there (back in the Sixties) facing the shore where the runway stuck out, the beach on the right for enlisted was “Dungaree Beach”, and the one on the Left was the officer’s beach, I think “All Hands Beach”, but not sure about that.
They had a place where they would tie down planes up above the beach to do high power testing, and the only safety measure was a white sign with red letters saying “DANGER-JET EXHAUST” and we would go stand in it when planes were turning...:) (IIRC, it was high enough above us that the real danger was getting sand in your eyes from it)
That was the first place I ever held a girl’s hand. She was a pixie-ish daughter of a Navy Captain...years later, when I joined the navy, I found out he had retired and was living near Norfolk, VA, I contacted them to see if I could visit, hoping to see their daughter...:) They invited me to dinner and she was there, so I wore my uniform over, but it didn’t have the irresistable effect on her that I hoped it would!
I had two stories about that beach...one, was when I got busted walking across the runway to go from one beach to the one on the other side...I just looked left and right, saw no planes in the pattern, and...just walked across. About halfway across, a jeep with a black checked flag on it came out and two guys grabbed me by the arms and hauled me in for...interrogation! I gave them a false name, because my dad (who was the base XO at the time) would have been pretty angry with me! They ended up calling a fake number I gave them, and when they got no answer, they let me go.
I wasn’t too bright, to be sure.
Another time, when I was walking around the tarmac looking at the planes, a pilot came out in his flight gear to take one of the F-8 Crusaders up. I followed him around like a puppy dog, and he finally asked me if I wanted to sit in the cockpit, I couldn’t say yes fast enough! (Every kid’s dream, right?) Well, he got me up there, and even let me put his helmet on (I was about 12 at the time) and when I got down they told me I had to leave the area, and before the guy climbed up, he grinned at me and said “Just watch me take off!”
As the Crusader jumped off the end of the runway out at sea, the guy pulled the plane up into a screaming climb at full afterburner and did 4 quick aeileron rolls before leveling out and flying away!
Man. I can remember that like it was yesterday...I was so thrilled.
That was my aviation version of going down to the docks and asking sailors if they would take me on a tour of their ship...:)