The Boatswain

The trip to Pagsanjan Falls was our last excursion. Shortly thereafter, I was relieved of my command. The family and I were taken to Clark Air Force Base, where we loaded aboard a Military Airlift Transport and flew back to the States. We landed in Travis Air Force Base, north of San Francisco, transferred to another flight and flew down to San Diego. Once more our good neighbors, the Armstrongs, met us and drove us home to El Cajon.

Oh, yes, we had sold our good old Ford to a Filipino business woman, for a good price, and it was still running like a champ when we left!

We also had an opportunity to take a large group to visit one of the Philippine’s main tourist attractions, a trip to Pagsanjan Falls. The trip by the USS Mark to Manila was routine. Then we rode a rickety bus to where the river boats were loaded. Two riders got into “bancas” (canoes carved from tree trunks) and the boatmen struggled up stream, through a lovely rain forest, for about two hours to get to the falls. After a swim by the falls and a trip for the more daring, under the falls, we started back downstream, covering the same distance in about 20 minutes!!! BIG difference!

Ready to Begin the Journey Upstream

Struggling Upstream

Only the brave took the raft under the falls.

Going downstream was easier and much faster.

We had a few more trips we made, both as recreation trips and as good will voyages. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip we took down to other islands, as a part of the Navy’s Operation Handclasp, where we got to take thousands of used school books to parts of the Philippines that really could use them. I wanted to go to the town I had visited in WWII, but it wasn’t an authorized port, so, instead, we went to the city of Romblom, on the island of Mindoro, where we could put our jeep on shore, load it up, and drive to Puerto Galera, my WWII town. The word had gotten to the island before us and, to my delight, not only did the governor of the island greet us, but the senior member of the constabulary there turned out to be the friend I had made, ‘way back when!!!! His name was Johnny Garcia and we had a long convoy of vehicles headed to Puerto Galera the next day! Sorry to say, a lot of my pictures of that time have been lost or mislaid:

Operation Handclasp in the Base Newspaper

USS Mark at the Port of Romblom

We would show movies on deck at night and the local children would crowd the pier to see them, even if they didn’t know English! We’d show MANY cartoons!

I am greeted by the Governor.

Here I am, shaking hands with the governor.  The individual on the left, who is only half in the picture, is my World War II friend, Johnny Garcia!

One of the big recreational things we got involved in was, of all things, SQUARE DANCING!!!! There was quite an active dance club, called the Bataan Twirlers, and my two oldest kids got involved in it. Several of our friends coaxed us into it, too, and of course, I got carried away and wound up as President of the club!

One of the things I had noticed was that we often had Filipino dance groups come on base and entertain at the various clubs. I thought it might be a bit of a pay-back if we could do the same for them. After we had discussed it, I asked the command, and sure enough, they thought it was a good idea! So using a bus provided by the base recreational services, and bringing a self-powered record player, off our club would go, about once a month on a Saturday.

Almost every small village had a central square and we’d set up in it, even though there didn’t seem to be much activity. As soon as we started playing the music, however, people would appear out of the woodwork and we’d soon have a crowd! We always had someone with us who could speak Tagalog, the native language (usually the bus driver) and, of course, there was someone there that spoke English. We’d usually have a few short “squares”, then Ellen would go with the Mayor (or whoever led the town) and I’d take his wife and we’d have a GRAND MARCH! This was a great ice-breaker and we’d follow up with more dances and even get some of the people to join in with us. A good time was had by all and after a couple of hours we’d all be ready to call it a day!

The Grand March

Our son Bob, was also a caller for our club. (We had several callers.)

Bob at the 1964 Cubi-Subic Square Dance Jamboree

Of course, I had to make the welcoming speech.

Van speaking at the Cubi-Subic Jamboree

One time we heard that there was going to be a big Square Dance Jamboree in Manila, put on by a group that was flying in from the US. All the military bases had square dance clubs and we were all invited to attend. Since it was on my ship’s “off” month, I asked if we could go down on the Mark and the Command said okay!

The group practiced a bit on the way down and were all primed to show up the Statesiders! HAH! After one dance, they decided we weren’t good enough and danced by them selves, while we had to do with ourselves or others from the other bases! The gang from the US had too many NEW “calls” that hadn’t worked there way out to us yet! We all had a good time, anyway.

Practice on the way to Manila

One last picture for this collection.  Our daughter Dorrie (standing on the left) with some people resting between dance practice sessions.

Resting on Deck

The USS MARK and her sister ship, the USS BRULE, operated on a schedule of every other month, running between Subic Bay and Sangley Point in  Manila Bay. Sangley Point was another, smaller Naval Base, but was important because it was near the capital city Philippines. We would haul all kind of supplies, including food, personnel, cars, etc., on the 5 1/2 hour run between the two ports. We’d arrive at Sangley in late afternoon and the stevedores would start unloading. We’d spend the night, all of the next day, unloading and reloading our return cargo and passengers, and sail the next morning. We’d average 4 trips on our duty month.

On our off-duty month we would be assigned to a lot of recreational trips, trips to assist in various naval exercises and in good-will voyages. The island of Corregidor, famous from WWII, is situated at the entrance to Manila Bay. (The city and Sangley are still a two hour sail into the bay!) We would often take visitors, Marines, the Bases’ High School classes, etc., on a day trip to the island, so they can see where history was made.

Carl and Dorrie on Corregidor.

Carl and Dorrie visit the island's chapel.

Also, at least once a year we would make a 10 day trip to Hong Kong. It would take 2 days to get there, we would stay 6 days and then sail back. On that trip we would have a full load of passengers, including “Sailors of the Year” winners and dependant wives who had been in Subic at least a year. The administration staff would decide who was eligible to go. Ellen went along in the second year and we had a good time over there.

The USS Mark (AKL-12) heading for Hong Konga patrol plane photo

Hong Kong HarborWe moored inside the little“7” shaped pier on the left side.

First duty in Hong Kong: Greet the Governor He'd send his car and driver.