Looking Back: Americans in Mactan Philippines

I’m shar­ing a pic­ture cir­ca 1966 show­ing a group of us pos­ing with mil­i­tary ser­vice men from the US Base in Mac­tan. Dur­ing the height of the Viet­nam War, 1965–1968, the Amer­i­cans built a mil­i­tary base in Mac­tan which housed the 772nd and 774th Troup Car­ri­er Squadrons and oth­er ser­vice­men on R&R there. When the Amer­i­cans left, the Amer­i­can base became part of the Cebu Air­port. But while the Amer­icans were there, you can imag­ine the honky tonk bars in Mac­tan and also in Cebu to enter­tain the Amer­i­cans — twin­kling lights and col­or­ful women all over the place!

I’m also shar­ing a link to my arti­cle enti­tled, “Mac­tan, 50 Years Ago and Now”:

http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/mac­tan-50-years-ago-and-now

This par­tic­u­lar pho­to was tak­en at my home dur­ing a cos­tume par­ty. The pic­ture shows, front row l‑r: Bing Velas­co, Cecil­ia Manguer­ra, Ana Manguer­ra hold­ing Pat­ty Manguer­ra, Man­ny Gon­za­lez, Noe Ilano; stand­ing l‑r: Guest, 3 Amer­i­can ser­vice­men, Guest, Jaime Picornell.

Tags: #viet­namwar #mac­tanair­base #mac­tan #cebu #viet­nam­con­flict #mil­i­tary #war