Posted on 06/08/2012 10:36:57 PM PDT by LibWhacker
With the U.S. moving the majority of its naval fleet to the Pacific, commanders are eagerly looking for invitations to park the planes and ships that will be pouring into the region.
Travis Tritten at Stars and Stripes reports that the Pentagon has apparently been fanning the old flame of friendship with the Philippines and will be re-opening two bases it left in 1991 — Subic Bay and Clark Air Base.
The U.S. had a falling out with the island nation in the early nineties and pulled out of the bases, which were then built-up by a series of private developers and builders. How useful what's left is a matter of debate, but the locations used to be major centers of operation for American forces in the Pacific.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
That was an issue as well as the length of the next lease. Another FReeper who was stationed in Subic during the base negotions and the Mt. Pinatubo eruption said that we wanted a 10 year lease and the PI government only wanted a 7 year lease. He also pointed out that with the billions in cleanup it would have cost the U.S. Government to repair just the Subic Bay Naval complex after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, we just opted to pull out when the leases expired at the end of 1992 and ended the lease extension negotions.
I was also at Subic Bay, ‘74 and ‘75. The Philippine people
are some of the most wonderful people on earth. I love
them to this very day.
Obama is also sending several thousand troups to Australia, and I think a couple of other Pacific locations.
I too love lumpia,,,, Clark 65-66
And damn the AF, in their wisdom, PCS’d me to Germany... Life was good, as a single SSgt on P2....
I still have many found memories of Paulina’s Cavern and the “Dirty Dozen”
in 1991, Aquino and the Philippine Senate engaged in a bit of cheap political pandering, when they didn’t think it would not cost them much to kick the USA out.
Now they want to have a big dog back in their yard, to bark at China. Is it worth it for the USA?
Subic bay ... Olongapo city ... sh$t river ... clap city ... San Miguel beer ... fond memories
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Subic Bay Good port
Olangapo ...definitely the ‘arm pit’ of Westpac but some of the GREATEST liberty in the world.
sh$t river - can’t get from A to C without it...Moon River it ain’t but the local yutes would dive for coins...And people in this country think they have nothing.
clap city - fortunately it does not apply to YT.
San Miguel beer - NOW that was a ‘green’ product even the Liberals could love.... especially when brewed yesterday with the pristine waters of the sh$t river and consumed by greatful Sailors the next day or so - that swill had absolutely no cure time and definitely a short shelf life...<: <:
All memories of Subic area are fond, even had our own little HUK forces to keep you on your toes.
The only reason I am alive today, after many memories were/are inspired by the region, is because I was aboard ship and we had some much needed underway time (recuperation) while going to the next grand Liberty Port, and not FORCED to partake of the goodies 3 nights out of 4.....
I thought Cam Ranh Bay was in Cambodia, at least when the locals celebrate Christmas by shooting off firearms and fireworks. ;) I read that from a guy who wrote a review for Apocalypse Now for the Boston Globe. I think he served in Vietnam ...
I’m all for the tinolang manok. Tastes like chicken.
The Filipino’s are getting those Jeepney’s ready.
BWAAAA-haaahaaaa! Very good!
God, I don't know how many times I heard about Olongapo and the alimentary-canal blowout available with San Miguel -- and I served on the Atlantic side!
Wonder if the Tiger Lady or Dragon Lady or whatever the hell they called her is still alive. I heard about her -- used to go collect the earnings from her houses in a convoy of two Jeeps equipped with Ma Deuce and stern-faced ex-mil Filipino enforcers.
Ever hear about her? She sounded like a character out of Terry and the Pirates, and I wouldn't have believed it -- but then I met Shelton Turner in the Bahamas, the original Ambassador Duke character. Think of him as a cross between Charlie Wilson and Hunter Thompson, and you're there.
If the old girl is still alive, she's got to be ..... in her late 80's.
Those boys better start backing up a bit. The Filipinos are our friends. Long time, no see -- Chinese not invited.
BTW, I don't think it'll be just Subic and Clark that'll be busy. If I'm CNO, I want to start putting facilities in places like Ulithi and Yap and Lingga Roads -- all the old names from the Big Show. Leyte. And yeah, why not? -- Rabaul, too. The Aussies and Indians and Japanese will want a place to park locally, too.
You don't want to be short of perching-spots if you're going to be in a showdown with the Chinese over the law of the sea and people running around proclaiming territorial seas and this and that mare clausum, the way the Chinese are doing.
Uh, no. They held back 700, 800 of our guys in 1973, who apparently gradually died off in prison camps over the next 15-20 years. Bo Gritz and William Shatner and a few people tried to do something about it, and our own people stepped on them like a bug. We'll never live that down, but the Viets? Never owned up, never said squat.
Go on recovering remains, all very polite, but that's it. We aren't friends until their people get rid of the cadres.
Like General Patton, nobody likes a loser, and we shouldn't act like losers by palling around with these little hardguy bastards after we threw a war to them, courtesy of our dog-eating liberal Democrat friends.
American liberals whine about "torture", but they're just playing Communist moral-equivalency games, when their little Red playmates in Hanoi did the real thing to our guys, and even sent out for professional help -- "Fidel" the Cuban, for instance. I saw Hanoi Hilton and I'll be really disappointed to hear that that s.o.b. died at home with his shoes off.
If he writes for the Glob, he probably fought on the wrong side.
Are you kidding? They want the planet.
I say we never go back move our forces else where or leave Asia entirely.
If we do that, we'll be saying hello to them in mid-Pacific. You did hear, didn't you, that they've generously offered to let us stay in the central Pacific? Convenient for us, since we own Guam, Midway, and Wake, not to mention Samoa.
This is a replay of Japan 1920 all over again. It's just a matter of time until we square off. And I'd point out again that the Mahan Doctrine states that we do not engage adversaries, or allow them to engage us, close to U.S. shores or on U.S. territory.
That's why we have the Marine Corps, riding the long arm of the Fleet to make the safety of the American People a law unto our enemies. No negotiation, no screwing around. That's how it is. Which brings up immediately how soon we'll be kicking China's ass out of the Panama Canal Zone.
No
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