EXCURSIONS INTO THE PHILIPPINES

[Karl Welteke]

Masonry Centennial Monument (Park) on Zambales Shortcut Road 2019-03-04

Often during my life I have met or seen members of the Freemasonry. On this 4th of March I noticed this new Freemasonry Monument on the San Marcelino-San Narciso Shortcut Road in Zambales. I thought I stop, take these pictures and share them.

I remembered the Masonic Memorial at Middleside on Corregidor Island. Reading the list of the Masonic Fraternity Brothers on that monument was an eye opener. It seems every Filipino and American leader at the turn of the 1900 century was a Mason.

The Masonry Fraternal Organisations says this:

Masonry is neither a religion nor a secret society. It teaches man to practice charity and benevolence, to protect chastity, to respect the ties of blood and friendship, to adopt the principles and revere the ordinances of religion, to assist the feeble, guide the blind, raise up the downtrodden, shelter the orphan, guard the altar, support the government, inculcate morality, promote learning, love man, fear God, implore his mercy, and hope for happiness.

Masonry is the universal morality, which is suitable to all men regardless of race and creed. It teaches no doctrine, except those truths which tend directly to the well-being of man and thereby achieve better men in a better world, happier men in a happier world, and wiser men in a wiser world.

 
I establish an album with 19 images of that Masonic Monument:

philippine-sailor.net/2019/08/09/masonry-centennial-monument-park-on-zambales-shortcut-road-2019-03-04/

Here are only 4 sample Images:



Ze500. This is one of 19 images of a new Masonic Centennial Monument/Marker in a new Masonic Centennial Park along the San Marcelino-San Narciso Shortcut Road in Zambales. I noticed this new park on the 4th of March, 2019 and learned it was established on the 31st of Jan. 2019.



Ze501a. This is one of 19 images of a new Masonic Centennial Monument/Marker in a new Masonic Centennial Park along the San Marcelino-San Narciso Shortcut Road in Zambales. I noticed this new park on the 4th of March, 2019 and learned it was established on the 31st of Jan. 2019.



Ze503 This is one of 19 images of a new Masonic Centennial Monument/Marker in a new Masonic Centennial Park along the San Marcelino-San Narciso Shortcut Road in Zambales. I noticed this new park on the 4th of March, 2019 and learned it was established on the 31st of Jan. 2019.



Ze507. This is one of 19 images of a new Masonic Centennial Monument/Marker in a new Masonic Centennial Park along the San Marcelino-San Narciso Shortcut Road in Zambales. I noticed this new park on the 4th of March, 2019 and learned it was established on the 31st of Jan. 2019.

[Karl Welteke]

Santa Fe 2019-02-07

With Harald, we walked from the Dyke to Santa Fe and back. Santa Fe, part of San Marcelino got completely destroyed and buried by the Mt. Pinatubo Lahar in the Santo Tomas and Santa Fe Rivers.

It is an extraordinary experience to see the power of the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo explosion. Also this was 1942 to 1944 Guerrilla Country, Col. Thorp had his HQ near Mt. Pinatubo, and it was a 1945 hunting range for Japanese Soldiers who did not want to surrender.

50 images were put in these two albums, take your pick:

Uploaded to Facebook:
www.facebook.com/karlwilhelm.welteke/media_set?set=a.10216835430711770&type=3


Uploaded to Photobucket:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Philippines/No%202%20Phil%20Events%20Group%20Albums/2019%20SB%20OC%20BB%20Zam%20News/Santa%20Fe%202019-03-07

For this forum presentation I picked these 6 images.



U298. This is 1 of 16 images of our walk across the about 3 km wide Santo Tomas Lahar River to the west bridge over the Santa Fe River in Santa Fe which was buried by the Mt. Pinatubo Lahar but reestablished along the slopes of its hills.



U299. This is a Google Earth image of our walk across the Santo Tomas River, I drew in our approximately GPS track. This is the big picture.



U300. This is a Google Earth image of our walk across the Santo Tomas River to the buried and reestablish town of Santa Fe.



U301. This is the west bridge over the Santa Fe River in Santa Fe Town. We are looking downstream. It is amazing to see that the river bed is converted, in part, to rice paddies.



U302. This is the new Santa Fe Cemetery, established after Mt. Pinatubo buried Santa Fe with its Lahar.



U303. Mt. Bagang is prominent feature in the vast Lehar river bed of the Santo Tomas River. We see a jeepney moving up the Santa Fe River bed in a northerly direction. I been up there only once so far.

[Karl Welteke]

Fort Barrette in Hawaii

At the beginning of our family year on Oahu, Hawaii, this is the new town of Kapolei. The former ex Fort Barrette is located here. I have not forgotten the Manila Bay guns. I checked in with the SSA here today, the 11th of Sep 2019, the fateful day in New York. Tomorrow I’ll be checking in with the VA. Give me another 10 days and I’m completely settled in. Got to get a Hawaiian driver license, my insurance does not accept the Philippine one, the State does though, I got a month to do it. Well I walked by here and I saw the gun battery and I got home sick. I haven’t forgotten the big guns yet!



Ze518 the western Battery of Fort Barrette on Oahu in Kapolei.



Ze519 the western Battery of Fort Barrette on Oahu in Kapolei.



Ze520 the western Battery of Fort Barrette on Oahu in Kapolei.





Ze521 the western Battery of Fort Barrette on Oahu in Kapolei.

[Karl Welteke]

Waimalu Walk near Pearl Harbor 2019-09-13

My first walk in Hawaii this year; I got new boots and they worked out fine. I walked from our apartment to the Pearl Harbor Yacht Harbor, the club there and back. I share these Hawaiian pictures, indeed the weather is great here and it was so today.

I prepared 33 pictures and I uploaded them here, in two different albums; take your pick. If you chose Photobucket, try slideshow, adjust for slow and maybe it will work better.

Uploaded to Facebook
www.facebook.com/karlwilhelm.welteke/media_set?set=a.10217073788990578&type=3

Uploaded to Photobucket:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Hawaii/Hawaii%202019/Waimalu%20Walk%202019-09-13

Here is one sample image:



U372. -Perhaps a special floating platform and again perhaps for intelligence is tied up to Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, not far from the USS Utah Memorial, the old Battleship, that got sunk in 1941.

[Karl Welteke]

Fort Barrette, three interesting URLs.

I have temporary moved to Hawaii for family reasons but my interest in history remains. There is a lot of history in Hawaii, after all the Pacific War started here.

Not far from my new residence is the former Fort Barrette. I actually visited it in 2005 and took a lot of pictures and I want to visit it again. But this time I looked at the internet first and found three interesting URLs.



Ze524. In this picture the 16-inch Mk II gun on a railway bogie was being installed in the battery. It was able to shoot two ton explosive shells 28 miles out to the sea. The scale of the gun was larger than main guns on U.S. battle ships. The casemate was installed later during the war.

Note from Karl: That is not accurate.

This picture came from this URL, it has a lot of pictures as the fort looks now much later after the war and after it was abandoned. The City and County of Honolulu owns it and it lets and archery group use it. This is the URL:

sakurasakujapan.web.fc2.com/maineng/battlefield/hawaiioahu/area11.html#site2



Ze525. This seems to be a machinery room; I think only these two people have seen it. On my 2005 visit I did not enter this room nor did I know that it exists.



Ze626. It seems these two visitors entered that machinery room this way. Their web page also has many pictures as the former Fort Barrette looks now. The above two pictures came from this web page:

www.hawaiifunshine.com/2016/11/18/from-artillery-to-archery/



Ze527. Fort Barrette was one of many such gun emplacements around O'ahu, and by the end of World War II, the island was one of the most heavily defended places in the world.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese strafed the then-uncovered gun emplacement, and Cpl. Joseph A. Medlen was killed.

According to William H. Dorrance in "O'ahu's Hidden History," the Army in 1942 began to "casemate" or provide overhead protection for the guns with eight to 12 feet of concrete. The above picture and text came from this URL, click here or copy and paste the URL:


The above picture and text came from this URL:

Note from Karl: This URL seems more accurate than the two previous URLs.

Kapolei fort defended coast, Honolulu Advertiser

the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Apr/22/ln/hawaii904220401.html

[Karl Welteke]

Hawaii, Philippines, Viet Nam Memories

Recently my family moved temporarily to Hawaii and I visited the Army Museum in Fort Derussy in Waikiki with family members. I saw pictures there that reminded me of my life in this world. I established an album from that day’s pictures but also some from earlier days. They were put into two accounts, each with 31 images, take your pick:

Uploaded to Facebook:
www.facebook.com/karlwilhelm.welteke/media_set?set=a.10217188335654173&type=3

Uploaded to K’s webpage:

philippine-sailor.net/2019/09/28/hawaii-philippines-viet-nam-memories/


If and when you watch the Photobucket account, try slideshow and choose the slow setting, maybe which will work better for you.

Here are 7 sample pictures:



Ze556. On the 2nd floor of the Army Museum in Fort Derussy in Waikiki is a large room with many stories displayed of U.S Service Men receiving the Medal of Honor. I glanced at one name and I recognized it immediately and it awoke deep memories of our service in Viet Nam. He was kept as a POW of the Viet Cong and was executed by them on the 26 Sep. 1965 in the U-Minh Forest near Ca Mau, the south end of South Viet Nam. I operated in this area with a Mike 8 type salvage boat in 1971 as a Salvor. This was my 2nd tour in Viet Nam; half of my crew was US and the other half Viet-Namese. Read his story, he was a hero.



Ze557.This is Capt. Humbert R. Versace, he was born in Hawaii. This picture came from this Wikipedia webpage, this URL:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbert_Roque_Versace



Ze558. Five Years to Freedom is a book about US POWs in Viet Cong hands, between 1963 to 1968 in the U-Minh Forest, the greater Ca Mau area, in the south end of South Viet Nam. After my 2nd tour in Viet Nam in 1971 I volunteered for the Navy’s Long Range Advisor Program for Viet Nam and underwent 35 weeks of Viet Namese intensive language training (I was first in the class of 40). This book just had come out and I studied is intensely. I had operated in that area before and was expected to serve there again. This is one URL:
www.amazon.com/Five-Years-Freedom-Story-Vietnam/dp/0345314603




Ze559. This is, then, First Lt. James N. Rowe (Nick) he was the author of the book Five Years to Freedom. His book fascinated me because I was going into that south end of South Viet Nam, the Mekong Delta to advise the South Viet Nam Brown Water Navy as a diver. I did serve my 3rd tour in Viet Nam, between June 1972 and March 1973. He witnessed much of the story of Capt. Versace, because they were took POWs together. He was able to escape, read that dramatic story in his book. After I retired from the Navy in 1991, 30 years plus, I settled in the Philippines and during my time there now Col. Nick Rowe was assassinated in the Philippines as an Advisor there by Filipino communist guerrillas. Read his biography here at this URL:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_N._Rowe



Ze560. The first German POWs from the German Gunboat Geier which was interned in Honolulu Harbor when WWI broke out. This picture is displayed in the Ft. Derussy Museum. It reminded me of my heritage. Hitler started the war and as a result Germany lost 25% of its country on demand by Communist Stalin who also divided the rest of Germany. The communist played a very negative role in the Weimar Republic also. That is why I believed the spread of communism has to be stopped and I volunteered to serve three different tours in the Viet Nam War, altogether 4 years in country.



Ze563. This picture is from one of my 1966 picture albums. I believe it was a Continental Airline Military Charter Flight and it stopped here in Honolulu on my way to Viet Nam via the Philippines. I just came from the 6th Fleet and participated in the Santa Domingo Conflict in 1965 and helped raise the H-Bomb that dropped in the Mediterranean Sea after a B-52 and refueling plane collided in 1965. The Viet Nam had started 1965 for real with the first combat units landed there in 1965 and I volunteered and that tour was 2 years and 9 month.

[Karl Welteke]

The Honolulu Rail Project

I recently returned to Hawaii, temporarily for one year, and had a look.

Oahu and Honolulu had a rail system; it was used for the sugar cane plantations. The US Military used it also for building the Oahu defenses against aggressors. The rail is long gone but only a few days ago I seen some remaining unused tracks at the west coast of Oahu.

For 30 years and many more Honolulu on Oahu has been talking about a light rail system for passengers, I even testified in one of those town meetings. I spoke in favor mentioning the rail system I knew, Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt.

After I left Hawaii for the Far East in 1987, the rails are actually being built. Many others have questioned it and they say the massive cost is TOO MUCH!

So I took some pictures of the project and uploaded them. The rail is nearly finished from Kapolei to the Honolulu Airport and I think that they hope it will be running this stretch in about a year or two. The project is planned to go all the way to Ala Moana and the University.

So far I uploaded 14 images into two albums, take your pick:

Uploaded to Facebook.

www.facebook.com/karlwilhelm.welteke/media_set?set=a.10217127157204750&type=3

Uploaded to Karl’s web page:

philippine-sailor.net/2019/09/22/honolulu-rail-transit-project/

If you are looking at the Photobucket album, perhaps try slideshow and choose slow; it might work better and you can read the descriptions.

Here are 3 links if you are interested in the project:

Honolulu Rail Transit Project.

The Honolulu Rail Transit Project is making progress; here is the project’s web side, click this URL:

www.honolulutransit.org/

Here is the URL for the map, click the URL.

cchnl.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=645f714ffdc742e7825023b80b99793d

How-a-20-mile-train-line-swelled-into-a-9-billion-debacle, click this URL:

www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-20-mile-train-line-swelled-into-a-9-billion-debacle-11553270393

Here are 3 sample images.





Ze528. Honolulu Rail Transit, Aloha Stadium Station #9 is being finished.





Ze534. The Honolulu Rail Transit Project Track, in a distance, is running over the Kunia-Ewa Road, in this picture we can see some of the track.



Ze586. This is one of two machines at work for HART, this one is at the Makalapa Gate. They lift pieces into place and advance by extending to the next Pile-Foundation.

[roland1369]

Karl The room that they entered through the ventilation shaft is the Power toom for the Battery. The three pads originally contained 3-100 KVA generators powered by Winton Diesel engines. There was in addition a 25 KW gasoline engine which powered an air compressor. The compressor was used to fill the three large air tanks shown in the pictures, these were used to start the diesel generators. I visited the site twice during the late 1990s but my camera malfunctioned in the power room so I got no pictures. The building with the rails on the concrete shelve40s is one of the eight magazines dispersed within the reservation and connected by a rail system to each other and the gun casemate. The 2340 pound AP projectiles were stored horizontaly on the rails and rolled on the rails onto small railcars which ran on the tracks between the shelves. Powder, 660 pounds per shot, was stored vertically in airtight metal cans, 2-110 pound charges per can, and moved to the guns by the same railway cars. Incidentally these 16 inch mounts were of the second series which utilized surplus Navy Mark II guns as opposed to the original series of m 1919 army 16 inch guns.

Read more: corregidor.proboards.com/conversation/2968#ixzz61uSAydMW

Note from Karl: Thank you Roland.

[Karl Welteke]

Trip to Northshore of Oahu, Haleiwa 2019-09-28

Haleiwa 2019-09-28

The family took a bus trip to Haleiwa, a recreation and tourist destination at the North Shore of Oahu. The place is scenic and the authorities made it a pleasant recreation spot. These pictures are from that trip. As I view towards the west, I was remembering the Dillingham Airfield and Kaena Point Coastal Defense Gun Position.

34 pictures were put into these two albums, take your pick:

Uploaded to Facebook:
www.facebook.com/karlwilhelm.welteke/media_set?set=a.10217308499898204&type=3

Uploaded to Photobucket:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Hawaii/Hawaii%20Album%201/Haleiwa%202019-09-28

Here are two sample pictures:



U382. Haleiwa 2019-09-28. This is one of many pictures from Haleiwa, at the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii on the 28th Sep. 2019. My family took a trip there and we enjoined the beautiful ocean views and great harbor facilities and a beautiful Hawaiian day.



U383. Haleiwa 2019-09-28. This is a Google Earth image showing the location of Haleiwa, Dillingham Airfield and Kaena Point on Oahu, Hawaii.

[Karl Welteke]

Submarine Base Pearl Harbor Memorial Park and other historic Spots 2019.

On the 29th of Sep. 2019 I had the opportunity to visit the Submarine Base in Pearl Harbor and took these pictures. I had the good fortune to do my two tours of shore duty on this base as an instructor in the Submarine Escape Training Tank and the Navy SCUBA and 2nd Class Diving School. These pictures are uploaded in high resolution in my Flickr album!

About 52 pictures are uploaded into this Flickr album:

www.flickr.com/photos/44567569@N00/albums/72157711361198972

Here are five sample pictures:



U384. One of many pictures of the Submarine Base Pearl Harbor Memorial Park and other historic sites on the Submarine Base Pearl Harbor. They were shot on the 29th Sep. 2019.
That closest pier (Sierra 2) is special to me. I had the privilege to conn (drive) the Submarine Rescue Ship USS Coucal ASR-8 and get it to that pier. It involved twisting the ship around and back in stbd-side-to the pier and this hull only had one screw. But as a Boatswains Mate I had experience with one screw boats and that helped.



U385. This is the Conning Tower of the USS Parche SS-384 at the Submarine Base Pearl Harbor Memorial Park. She was a most successful boat in WWII.
Again, this awakens a proud moment when I had the honor to use my Boatswains Mate Pipe here at this Memorial Park for the retirement of a good friend and a very senior and accomplished Submariner Master Chief Petty Officer.



U386. Naturally I could not resist visiting the Submarine Escape Training Tank at the Submarine Base Pearl Harbor. I had the good fortune to do my two tours of shore duty on this base as an instructor in the Submarine Escape Training Tank and the Navy SCUBA and 2nd Class Diving School.



U387. This is the close-up picture of the plaque explaining the purpose of the Submarine Escape Training Tank at the Submarine Base Pearl Harbor. It was a very great experience to free-dive down to the 100-feet depth in that well lighted tank and showing off to visitors.



U388. This is a 1974 graduation picture of a 2nd Class Diver class, staged in front of the Submarine Escape Training Tank at the Submarine Base Pearl Harbor. I only remember Dicky Day, sitting at left and I’m sitting at right, we two were the instructors.