Subic Bay, SBFZ, ex Naval Base

[Karl Welteke]

GREEN BEACH THE MARINE TRAINING AREA IN SUBIC BAY

Agusuhin Village 2006-Aug-4

Friends

A Marine friend asked what happened to the people on Green Beach, Subic Bay, the Marine training area and I uploaded a few pictures into this album:

s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Philippines/Korean%20Shipyard-Redondo%20Mt/Korean%20Shipyard-Redondo%20Mt%20area%20No%201/Agusuhin%20Village%202006-Aug-4?sort=9&page=1

and said this:

In 2006-Aug. 4th friends and I visited the Agusuhin Resettlement on the slopes of Redondo Mountain and these pictures are from this date. The date imprint of 2003 is wrong, because of a camera problem. This village was located in the area our Marines called: Green Beach. The construction of the Korean Shipyard Hanjin had started the year before in the area of the Green Beach and the people were resettled here. Our impression was that the authorities had done a bad job and the pictures show it.

These pictures A1 to A9 were shot on Aug. 4th 2006 and the Agusuhin Resettlement was looking pretty bad then. This album was established on the 7th of Nov. 2015 and the situation has vastly improved since then. I have a lot of pictures of that day but so far only these 9 have been uploaded.

Karl

PS: two sample pictures are attached:



W299 (A1) a Google Earth image to show where Green Beach or Agusuhin was and where the village is now.



W300 (A8) a look down slope, most people should be able to recognize Pequena Island (most of us referred to it As Snake Island). The road and houses have improved by now in 2015. The real date of this picture is 2006-Aug.-04, the imprint is wrong.

[Karl Welteke]

THE LANDINGS NORTH OF OLONGAPO 29TH JAN. 1945

A well known personality, Federico Baldassarre, who is also the webmaster of the Battling Bastards of Bataan sends out a lot of historical stuff and I am on his list.

Recently he sent me the URL for the Navy Magazine All Hands 1945-Feb issue. Then I searched for the 1945 March issue hoping that issue would have some material about Olongapo and Corregidor. The All Hands Magazine is dear to my heart as a Navy man; we Sailors always looked forward to receive the next issue and I served from 1960 to 1991.

It did, I took 4 images from the 1945-March Navy All Hands Magazine which pertain to the landings north of Olongapo to liberate Olongapo. This is the URL but it is a 39,684 KB big. www.navy.mil/ah_online/archpdf/ah194503.pdf I numbered these pictures R1 to R4 and they are now in this album below:

s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/SBFZ%202004%20and%20earlier/Subic%20Bay%20Historic%202?sort=9&page=1

The same 4 images are presented here in the forum and in this case only 2 are smaller than in the album.



W320 (R1) the Navy All Hands Magazine, 1945-March, had little graphs and small news clips about the progress of the war. This graph shows landings on the west coast of Luzon in Jan. Feb. 1945.



W321 (R2) this Navy All Hands Magazine, 1945-March news clip describes the landing in Zambales on the 29th Jan 1945.



W322 (R3) the descriptions says Olongapo but it was on the beaches off San Antonio to San Narciso, in Zambales but to capture Olongapo was the next main objective. At that time the Filipinos received the Americans with great enthusiasm.



W323 (R4) the descriptions says Olongapo but it was on the beaches off San Antonio to San Narciso, in Zambales. The locals were very helpful it seems they were happy that the Japanese were driven away.

[cbuehler]

Here is some more recent news:
news.yahoo.com/us-navy-edges-back-subic-bay-philippines-under-180150409.html
Karl,
Have you seen more recent activity?

CB

[Karl Welteke]

Luxurious Cruise Ship diverted to Subic Bay 18th Nov 2015



W342 the cruise liner M/V Silver Shadow is approaching the pier in Subic Bay, photo credit Manila Bulletin Board and other local news services.


It is reported by the Manila Bulletin Board with this URL:
www.mb.com.ph/6-star-cruise-ship-diverted-to-subic-port/

The SubicNewsLink reported it with this link
tinyurl.com/oowjm2u

[Karl Welteke]

CUBI POINT NAVAL AIR STATION AIRCRAFTS-WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM

At Cubi Point Naval Air Station used to be two fighter type aircraft mounted for display. One was at the entrance to the Air Station, the other one was mounted near, over or next to the Bachelor Officer Quarters (BOQ) swimming pool. They are gone, where are they now? They have been moved to the Olongapo City. The city got a greater sense of history than the new management of the former Naval Base.

I established this album with 24 images to show where the two aircrafts are now:

s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/SBFZ%202014%20and%202015/Cubi%20Pt%20aircrafts%20what%20happened?sort=9&page=1
or
tinyurl.com/ho2xjrc

Here in the forum I present 9 images but they are much smaller:



W476 (X1) this picture came from Tim Pontious, from a web page that was called: “Subic Bay, Closing Day”. It does not seem to be available anymore. The mounted aircraft is at the entrance of Cubi Pt. Naval Air Station.



W477 (X1a) this is the entrance to the former Cubi Point Naval Air Station where the aircraft was mounted. In 2005 it was gone; this place is now a gas service station.



W478 (X2) a Google Earth image marked up with the locations of the two former mounted fighter aircrafts in the former US Naval Air Station Cubi Point.



W479 (X3) the new location of the two former mounted fighter aircrafts in the former US Naval Air Station Cubi Point; the city of Olongapo seems to have a keener sense for history.



W480 (X4) in 2005 one of the aircrafts was temporarily moved here. This was part of the Moral, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) compound. A building stood here and vehicles could be rented here; it collapsed under the Mt. Pinatubo ash. A big new hotel is standing here now in 2015.



W481 (X6) one of the former Cubi Point Naval Air Station aircraft has been moved here to the Leo’s Park in Olongapo City. In back of it used to be the Olongapo Hospital which is now used as the city library.



W482 (X14) this is a plaque in the Marikit Park, Olongapo City and it states that the Olongapo City and the City of Virginia Beach are sister cities and use an anchor as a symbol to indicate their close connections to the Navy.



W483 (X16) close-up of #14; this is a plaque in the Marikit Park, Olongapo City and it states that the Olongapo City and the City of Virginia Beach are sister cities and use an anchor as a symbol to indicate their close connections to the Navy.



W484 (X17) the front of the Marikit Park in Olongapo City, the 2nd of two aircrafts that came from the former US Naval Base. It seems the new management of the ex Base doesn’t think that the whole history of Subic Bay is too important and let the aircrafts go.

[cbuehler]

Of course there is no surprise that the management of the base would regard it's history with abandon. While I commend Olongapo City with adopting the birds; the pink monument, well, hmmmmm...I dont know.

CB

[Karl Welteke]

PICTURES OF SUBIC BAY, 2ND HALF OF 2015

I established an album for those 64 images, this is the URL:

s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Philippines/No%202%20Phil%20Events%20Group%20Albums/2015%20OC%20BB%20SB%20ZAM%20events/Subic%202015%202nd%20Half?sort=9&page=1
or
tinyurl.com/hpweaq9

Here are 5 sample images, and they are much smaller:



W579 (0A2) this is the relative new Lady of Lourdes International Hospital at the entrance of Barrio (Barangay) Barretto, Olongapo City.



W580 this is the end of Olongapo City and the beginning of the Subic Municipality. The bridge over the Matain River has been widened. This river is now dredged; will the flooding of Sta. Monica be history now? (0B2) the right side of the Subic Municipality map reaches across the Zambales Mountains and the people that live there have to come to the City Hall via Dinalupihan in Bataan. That was a surprise to me, this was a new thing I learned on my walks.



W581 (0D3) we are on the Barrio Barretto Beach and are looking towards the bay of Subic. In the foreground are the left over parts of the 1945 Navy Supply Base pier, it is low tide now.The nest of ships blocking the view to Grande Island is trans-loading iron ore from Brazil, from a large ship to a smaller one so that vessel then can enter a shallow port in Red China.



W582 (0H6) what a surprise, I came along a group of Sailors cleaning up Baloy Beach. I believe they were from the ship USS Emory S. Land AS-39. And what a low tide in Subic Bay; I tried to engage one into talk but they seemed not to be in the mood.



W583 (0L1) this is the 1st of 10 images (in the album), shot left to right from a location at the mouth of the Matain River; we see the Korean Shipyard across Subic Bay. That area used to be Green Beach, the training area for the Marines for field exercises.

This URL is for a group of albums, all dealing with the Subic Bay area and all were shot in 2015:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Philippines/No%202%20Phil%20Events%20Group%20Albums/2015%20OC%20BB%20SB%20ZAM%20events?sort=9&page=1
or
tinyurl.com/nhnsul8

[Karl Welteke]

BETTER IMAGE OF THE OLONGAPO RIFLE RANGE



W584 this is a better image of the Olongapo Rifle Range than image X973 (Y2) on page 4 in this thread in the entry dated Aug. 19th 2015 called: BARRIO BARRETTO HAS A NAVY HISTORY THAT GOES WAY BACK. This one was also sent to me by Bert Caloud. This is also from the 1930s.

This is the album with the old images from Subic Bay:

s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/SBFZ%202004%20and%20earlier/Subic%20Bay%20Historic%202?sort=9&page=1

or

tinyurl.com/q3u9r5d

[Karl Welteke]

WHAT ARE THESE BOATS IN SUBIC BAY?

Jim Holub, web master of the famous web page “Subic Bay Naval Base-Revisited”.

www.subicbaypi.com/

sent this:



W600 these boats are next to the former Naval Brig on the ex Subic Bay Naval Station and have been moored there forever.



W601 location of these two boats is indicated on this Google Earth map of the former US Subic Bay Naval Station which is now part of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.



W602 this picture was sent to me by my friend Jim Holub and is from a German speaking visitor to Subic Bay. It shows to sleek hulled boats near the Naval Brig (prison) of the former US Subic Bay Naval Station. Thank you German speaking visitor for the pictures. Below is my translation of his questions:
Maybe they will steam again? In view distance from the SRF (Ship Repair Facility). Maybe they were used as smuggle boats. They look cool, like racing crafts, is the material aluminum?



W603 this picture was sent to me by my friend Jim Holub and is from a German speaking visitor to Subic Bay. It shows two sleek hulled boats near the Naval Brig (prison) of the former US Subic Bay Naval Station. Thank you German speaking visitor for the picture. Below is my translation of his questions:
Who knows something? Craft type (S boats or P-boats like the Americans have) Manufacturer, Out of what material, Year Built? They are in Subic Bay, Philippines.

This is my answer to Jim’s inquiry about these two boats:

Jim
This is purely my speculation only: In the first few years of the Philippine takeover of the Naval Base there was some smuggling going on (rumors) and these very fast boats were used for that (Cigarettes or whatever from Red China or Hong Kong or from where-who knows). Then they were finally stopped or they just quit, maybe it was not profitable anymore and the boats ended up here.
Karl

[EXO]

Karl,

Great looking boats, those. What with the shortage of Philippine Navy and Coast Guard vessels here, it's a disappointment (more like a crying shame) to see two "fast boats" sitting idle and wasting away. The ignorance and wastefulness of governments is sad.

Thanks for the report.