Living in the Philippines - Part 4 Wagner High School Junior Year

Wagner High School

When school started in August of 1970, I was attending my third high school in as many years.  The first was Highland Falls High School outside of West Point New York.  Other than band, I was not involved with anything special here. I do remember advanced placement biology was a good class. After talking with friends that stayed at West Point, I am pretty happy that I left when I did.

My second high school was Moapa Valley HS in Overton, Nevada. This one changed everything. I was in band, but also was convinced by my mom to take chorus. And the great friends I made there got me involved in the school musical, a Shakespeare play, going to basketball and football games, and running track. I discovered that there was a lot of great things you could do if you made the effort.

So, here I am at Clark AB, getting ready for school to start at Wagner HS.  There are some expectations thanks to MVHS.

Band - ✔
Chorus - ✔
Musicals - ✔
Advanced math classes - ✔
Advanced science classes - ✔
Vocal Ensemble (Select small singing group) - NO ........ Wait, what?

At Moapa Valley they had a select small singing group called Vocal Ensemble. From feedback I had while I was there I think I had a pretty good chance of getting in if I had stayed. No Vocal Ensemble? This is unacceptable, soldier!

Starting off on the right foot, the first day of school was canceled.  We had 21 inches of rain in three days. Many of the kids lived off base and the roads were impassable. So we started a day late.  The school had about 1000 students. It was open campus so if you didn't have classes you didn't have to hang around.  This made lunch easy for me. We lived withing walking distance so I went home for lunch, and about once a month we could use dad's club card to go through the sandwich line at the Offices club. (Pastrami and Swiss on rye with German mustard!!!)

I remember taking Band, Chorus, Chemistry, American History, Geometry, and American Lit my junior year. Miss Osborne (we were not into the politically correct MS stuff yet) was the band director. It was her first year at Wagner. I was 1st clarinet, 2nd chair until Laurel Salter showed up and took 1st clarinet, 1st chair pushing me to 3rd chair, or 2nd clarinet 1st chair. I don't remember for sure. I was fine with that. Chorus was my first love. Miss Osborne had us play some challenging music - don't ask me what at this point.

I know we did go to Sangley Point NAS on April 16, 1971 to do a concert. We were supposed to do another at Faith Academy in Manila, but one of the busses broke down and we had to cancel.

Miss Osborne
Band Director

Getting clothes made was cheap in the PI, so we had our custom made "gas station attendant" uniform for band, and long dresses for the girls and suites for the guys in chorus.

Chorus 1970/71

Miss Susan Bischke was the new chorus director. She was actually the middle school music teacher but taught the high school chorus.  We had about 40 kids signed up, but only 8 male voices. Second setback - not enough men to sing SATB music. Argh.  By stealing some altos that could sing low as tenors we were able to do a little SATB but mostly Soprano, Alto, Baritone.  As I recall, we kind of started off with music that was not real tough to sing. That would change! I do remember singing Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring in German at Christmas.

I don't recall what song precipitated it, but Miss Bischke took her 12 strongest voices and create a small group, and that is what we did. And the group never disbanded while we were there.  The kids selected loved singing, we loved singing together, and we got to do some fun popular and broadway type songs over time. Only thing we could not do was agree on a name for the group, so for the whole time we were there, it was The Small Group.

Vocal Ensemble (Select small singing group) - ✔


At Christmas time, we did the one-act opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors.  I had the part of the page, and Mike was a shepherd.

Mike and me in our Amahl costumes

The annual musical review was called "Enter the Young." It ran April 1-2. Mike was in it but I wasn't.

The musical we did that spring was the 1956 broadway musical Li'l Abner based on the satirical comic strip of the same name that ran from 1934-1977. The lead called for large, buff guy (think Jethro Bodine in Beverly Hillbillies) played by a student. Some of the other primary parts were given to faculty. But there were two men's quartets - Abner's cronies, and the secretaries to Gen Bullmoose.  There were only about 5 guys that could carry 4-part harmony in a quartet, and I was one of them.  So there was a fair amount of changing between costumes as we went back and forth during the show, with only minor dressing room oopses with other cast member changing at the same time. The orchestra was a combination of WHS and 13th Air Force bands. The set came in handy the next year. WHS always did a Sadie Hawkins Day reverse dance - and Sadie Hawkins day originated with this comic strip.  We dragged out the stage scenery (including the statue of Jubilation T. Cornpone) from the play and used them decorations for the dance. Some of the costumes showed up at the dance, too.

Program cover

For American history, we had to write a term paper. I chose to write about the liberation of Luzon Island in the Philippines by the American forces. I really got to into it. We had to turn in our note/reference cards. I had 102. (This was the days before the internet, and you actually had to go to the library to find this stuff. And no cutting a pasting either! Fortunately the library on a military base had a fair about of information for my chosen topic.)  My interest may be understandable. I lived on the battlefield. Our house had been occupied by the Japanese during the war. Farmers outside the fence would still bring up Japanese helmets and other items they had found in the mountains around the base. When we would drive up to Lingayen Gulf to go snorkeling and down to Manila, we were following the invasion route. When they broke ground for the new commissary, they found 6 unexploded bombs from the war. I think I got a B+ because it was too long. 😊


Li'l Abner Pictures

Li'l Abner

Romeo Scragg (Rick Wall), Clem Scragg (Jon McCracken), Marryin' Sam (Mr Wood), back - Hairless Joe (Tim Culbreth), Earthquake McGoon (Bull Durham ), Daisy Mae (Vickie Hollandsworth)

General Bullmoose (Mr Cala), Senator Jack S. Phogbound (Mike Saylor), secretaries (Steve Parsons, Gary Turek)

Lonesome Polecat (Marks Wars), Cronies (Steve Parsons, Mike Turek, Gary Turek, Jim Hall),  Li'l Abner (Brent Beverly)

h

Found some old Instamatic camera negatives that had this on it

Li'l Abner Program

School Newspaper
Falcon Crier Articles

I think this one is from the Pacific Stars and Strips
since the photo is credited as official USAF 

Class Picture 1970/71

Living in the Philippines - Part 3 The New "Normal"

Faculty

The Department of Defense Dependent School System (DODDS) went to great pains to make the overseas school as much like the stateside counterparts as they possibly could. Unlike most schools where the teachers generally come from colleges in the area, DODDS teachers are from all over the country. I had teachers from California, North Dakota, Washington, Michigan, Arizona, and the South. They were all certified stateside and were pretty good.  I was able to pretty much sleep through my first college chemistry class because of the stuff Mr Tucker taught me my junior year at Wagner.

We had band, chorus, tennis, soccer, basketball, cheerleaders, volleyball, baseball, wrestling, softball, cross country, and track. We had homecoming, and prom, national honor society, powderpuff football, and dances. I think we were well ahead of the power curve on diversity. We were all colors, ethnic groups and even though there were race riots in the US, generally we seemed to get along fine with each other.

But you cannot just pick up a school or community from the States and move it overseas and expect it to be the same. Significantly, very few people stay for more than 2-3 years. That means that about 1/3 of the friends you make will be gone within a year of you meeting them. We all knew that and most of use made friends pretty quickly. We were all in the same boat. You got there a complete stranger (among other complete strangers), made friends, cried a little bit when it came time for them or you to leave, and you moved on. Many teachers were also there for a couple of years only.

Some of our fathers spent a lot of time "in country" ie. in Vietnam, and there was a chance that they might not come home, and we knew it. It was rare but I have friends whose father's name is now on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC.

You can try to pretend you are in America, but you are not! You are surrounded with a foreign culture that speaks another language (although most Filipinos around the base spoke some English.) Just like anywhere else, large military bases in the PI attracted some of the seediest characters around to take advantage of the GIs, and Angeles City had this type of people in spades. But if you could get away from the base, you learned that the Filipinos were some of the warmest, friendliest, most generous people you would ever meet. ("Hey, Joe!!" they would call out to you - a reference to GI Joes of World War II) 

Student Government

Time was always on the 24 hour military clock. We had to learn a new language of sorts. Being military brats, we were all familiar with common military terms like TDY (temporary duty), BX (base exchange - PX Post Exchange if you were army), commissary (on base grocery store) PCS (Permanent Change of Station) and so forth. To this was added DEROS (Date Estimated Return from Overseas) - this was when you would be going back to the "world" (the United States, also known as the "Land of the Big BX"). Getting "short" meant that you were in a couple of months or days of your DEROS. The "freedom bird" was the airplane (usually a chartered commercial airliner) that would take you back to the states.

We were ordinary teen agers placed in extraordinary circumstances. Some coped by getting involved. Some coped by rebelling. Others just kind of muddled through. We knew it was different for us. But it was just our everyday life, our "normal."

(Pictures from 1971 and 1972 Fledgling Yearbooks)

Living in the Philippines - Part 2 Arrival and First Months

TIA DC-8-63 at Clark AB

We left Overton, Nevada in late May of 1970, just as school was getting out. We flew from Las Vegas to Oakland. Uncle Vince got us from Oakland to Travis AFB (I think we spent the night first.)  Our flight left Travis at around 10pm (2200 - might as well get used to using military time. That is what was used for everything in the Philippine Islands (PI)).  We flew on a Trans International Airlines (TIA - aka Trash In the Air) stretch DC-8-63. The planned route was 5 hours to Hawaii, refuel, 5 hours to Wake Island, refuel, then 5 hours to Clark. The runway at Wake was partially closed for repairs so we could not put on a full load of fuel and ended up making a stop at Anderson AFB in Guam for gas before going on to Clark. Flying in a single class, stretch DC-8 is kind of like traveling in a Christmas wrapping paper tube with windows. We arrived mid-day two days after we left California (after taking in account crossing the International Date Line.) Since we were chasing the sun, all of the flight except the leg from Guam to Clark (about 3 hours) was in the dark. We were in pretty good shape when we landed at Clark in the late morning hours, but we all crashed about mid-afternoon. We spent the first night in a hotel just off base.

Fil

Dad had been in the PI for about 9 months already and had us a house just outside Clarkview gate. At that point we only had one car, the Plymouth Duster that was a bare-bones car. Three-on-the-tree manual transmission, am radio. It did have air conditioning. The house was a three bedroom, two bath house that would have fit comfortably in most suburbs in The States. Only thing that was different was the maids quarters in the back of the house. Many military families hired a local girl to help with cleaning and other chores.  Dad had hired Fil - short for Filipinas, as a temporary until Fil's sister was to become available. We liked Fil so much we kept her the whole time we were in the PI. She kind of became part of the family. In fact we paid her tuition at the University of the Philippines where she got her degree.

But I digress. Living off base did pose a couple of challenges. First, you had to be 18 to drive in the PI, and I was only 16 at the time.  I could drive on base with my Nevada license but not off. So the quarter mile from the house to the gate was a personal barrier.  Second, the car had a standard transmission. Dad had to teach me how to shift and drive before I was allowed to solo in the car. Third, off base water was not considered safe for drinking. It was okay for washing and bathing.  So we had water jugs that we would take to a water filling station just inside the main gate. The hoses looked like those at a gas station, only instead of gas  you got water. Every couple of days we had to go refill the jugs.

The first couple of months were pretty boring.  School was out for the summer, and we didn't know anyone, so we spent a lot of time reading books from the library. We did make a trip to Subic Bay once and about got lost on the way - heading for Bataan instead of Subic. We would go out in town (Angeles City) to eat and started buying some of the local crafts - mainly Narra wood (aka Philippine mahogany) items. I was in pretty good shape from running track at Moapa Valley, but there wasn't any convenient place to run, and it was hot and humid. So I read.

One of the things most people did in the PI was buy really good stereo equipment.  We could get top notch Japanese equipment duty free on base. So most people had a really good receiver, speakers, a turntable, and a reel-to-reel tape deck. (Cassettes had just come out and the sound quality was still kind of marginal on cassettes.)We had the receiver and speakers when I got there (receiver still works, by the way.) We got a tape deck and turntable that summer so we had something to listen to.

Quarters 2057 Clark AB

In late July we were notified that a house on base was available. I won't go into detail about how the housing list is set up other than to say it is based on rank, family size and length of time on the list. If you turn down the house  you are offered you go to the end of the list. UNLESS the house they offer is considered substandard (due to age, no air conditioning, whatever.)  We were offered a house that was built in 1904, substandard wiring, no AC, and we snatched it up in a heartbeat.

HQ 13th Air Force and flags from our front porch

The house was one of the original Fort Stotsenburg officer row houses. Set off the ground on concrete pilings it was on the parade ground right next to the Officers Club pool. The rooms where huge (Mike and I shared a room that was about 20' by 20'.) There was a tall, ventilated attic with corrugated metal roof, a screen porch that ran across the entire front of the house. There were vents along all of the walls at the ceiling and the floor. It had about 10 foot ceilings, There were ceiling fans on the porch and in all the rooms. There were bamboo shades on the screened windows on the front of the house that you could roll down when it rained so you could still sit out on the porch during the tropical downpours. (The shades to the right of the front door in the picture above are rolled down.) Huge Monkey Pod trees shaded the house. If there was any breeze at all, you felt it in the house. The place actually stayed pretty comfortable most of the time. It was within walking distance to the high school. Quarters 2057. This was like the BEST HOUSE EVER!!!

My sister, Sherri on screen porch
Note vents running on wall near the floor

There was one disadvantage of living on the parade ground. Every day at 1700 they would sound retreat, fire the cannon, and then lower the flags. (We had Admiral Boom from Mary Poppins in our front yard 😁) Anyone outside was expected to come to attention and face the flags. With both the US and Philippine national anthems being played, you were going to be standing there for a while!!!

We did get the two bedrooms that were on outside walls setup for window air conditioners - the master bedroom and Mike's and my bedroom.  We had to get plastic sheets to cover all the vents and Civil Engineers had to come install wiring circuits that could handle an air conditioner.  That was free so what the heck. All we had to buy was the window AC units.

We moved in August. You were limited on how much stuff you could ship to the PI from The States, so most of the furniture and the appliances were supplied by the Air Force. We bought some rattan furniture for the porch.  Somehow dad finagled a second fridge for the porch that we stocked with ice cream and toppings and sodas. We got a second car for Mom, and I was checked out on the Duster so now I had wheels! We were ready for school to start!

Living in the Philippines - Part 1 Clark AB in 1970-72

I have been encouraged by my kids to write a personal history. Since I grew up as an Air Force brat, the logical way to write this is in sections about the places I have lived. So here is my history for the time we spent at Clark AB, in the Philippines. I am breaking it up into several parts.

Living as a teenager at an overseas military base is a unique experience, but when you are living it yourself, it is just everyday life.

Clark in 1938
Parade ground area in the background

Clark, 1967
This is how it looked when I lived there

But before I can tell you about life in the PI, I need to tell you a little bit about Clark AB in 1970.

Clark was located on the main island of Luzon, in the Republic of the Philippines about 40 miles northwest of Manila. (We usually shortened that to the PI for Philippines Islands.) It was established as Fort Stotsenburg in 1903 after the US took over the Philippines from the Spanish after the Spanish American War.  In 1919, the Army Air Corps set up a section of the post as Clark Field. During World War II, most of the aircraft at Clark were destroyed by a Japanese air attack just nine hours after Pearl Harbor. The facility was abandoned when Gen MacArthur ordered all US forces to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula in a delaying tactic to wait for reinforcements from the US (which never came.) The base was occupied by the Japanese in January 1942. The first Japanese Kamikaze attack of the war launched from Clark in October of 1944. Clark AB was recaptured by the Americans in January-February 1945 after three months of fierce fighting. Clark became an important base during the cold war and was a major logistics hub during the Vietnam War era - which is when I lived there.

According to Wikipedia, "Clark Air Base was arguably the most urbanized military facility in history and was the largest American base overseas. The base proper covered 14.3 square miles. At its peak around 1990, it had a permanent population of 15,000. It had a base exchange, a large commissary, a small shopping arcade, cafeterias, teen centers, a hotel, miniature golf, riding stables, zoo, and other concessions." It generated its own electricity and treated its drinking water.

Recreation

There were three large scale servicemen's clubs - the Officer's Club (CABOOM) near the parade ground (right next door to our house), the Top Hat Club for NCOs near Lily Hill, and the Coconut Grove Airmen's Club with indoor palm trees. The clubs regularly brought major bands and artists from the United States to perform.

Kelly Theater

At least a hundred sponsored clubs and organizations were active on the base, including the Knights of Columbus, a Latino American club, and martial arts dojos. The Kelly Theater showed recent releases for movies from the US. Movies were also shown at the Bamboo Bowl (the football stadium on base).

The Bamboo Bowl hosted recreational league football games for ages 8–18. The high school age football teams were included as part of the recreational league. It was also used for the base's 11-man tackle football league, which not only included teams from Clark but from Subic Naval Base as well.

Base Hospital

To keep the residents entertained at home, Clark had an active broadcast center called AFPN (Armed Forces Philippine Network), a division of American Forces Radio and Television Network (AFRTS). A television station broadcast on Channel 8. It showed about 20 hours per day of syndicated programs from the "big three" networks in the United States, with local news and talk programs.

AFPN had two 24-hour radio stations: an AM station which broadcast news and popular music, and stereo FM which was dedicated to easy-listening and classical music. Local Filipino TV also aired newer American shows than AFPN did.

Two major annual events at Clark were the annual Chili Cookoff, held near the Silver Wing recreation center around September, and the Happening on the Green ("the HOG"). The HOG was a major carnival held on a designated weekend in February which attracted thousands of residents. Amusements and rides were built and operated not only by Filipino entertainment contractors but also by individual Air Force units seeking to boost unit morale, showcasing their talents and to raise funds.

Because of the warm climate and the large number of units, slow pitch softball tournaments were held quarterly. There were at least 2 gymnasiums, 3 walking/running tracks and 7 soft ball fields on base.

There were schools for dependents k-12 grade. University classes were held on base also.

The base experiences two distinct seasons: a dry season from November through April, with a wet season from May through October. From 1953 to 1991, the mean daily low was 73.6 °F (23.1 °C) and the mean daily high was 88.1 °F (31.2 °C), with April being warmest and January coolest. The average annual rainfall was 78.39 inches (1,991 mm).

It was about an hour drive to Manila, and likewise to Subic Bay, a huge US Navy installation. A couple of hours drive north took you to John Hay AB in Baguio. John Hay was primarily a recreation area in the mountains where the nights were cool enough that you could used the fireplaces in the cabins.