Miscellaneous travels on Corregidor

[victor]

Stripper clip... also known as "charger" keeps together ammunition rounds for faster loading of the rifle. Like below. The Springfield 1903 and Japanese Arisaka rifle used these clips. The rounds can actually be loaded one at a time but it's faster to push them down into the rifle from a stripper clip.

click for bigger


The garand used an enbloc clip that holds eight cartridges together. The whole thing including the enbloc clip goes right inside the rifle. Whereas in the Springfield and Arisaka, the stripper clips are just used to guide the rounds in and then discarded.

[fots2]

I am familiar with the term "charger". Thanks for the explanation of a "stripper clip" Victor.

[fots2]

Adjacent to the Topside Officer’s club is an abandoned radio site. What you can see of it is fairly modern so this is definitely recent history. No one seems to know much about it.







As you approach the site, the largest building is on the left side of a long curved driveway. It contains two diesel generators with individual control panels. A diesel fuel ‘day tank’ sits towards the rear. Adjacent to here a grassy area may be the location of buried fuel tanks however the vegetation is too thick to see any pipes. On the wall is a 250 Amp AC entrance. This setup would have been required since there is no other source of ‘normal’ AC power on Topside.







The two buildings opposite the generator building are modified shipping containers.




For customers that require a complete radio site in a compact building, especially in remote locations, it is a very efficient practice for venders to use containers. In their company’s assembly area they install all racks, cables, lights, power and radio equipment etc to meet the customer’s specific requirements.

The completed container is then shipped via means that any other container would be transported. On arrival it would be placed on a concrete slab and then pre-installed power, grounds, voice and antenna cables would be connected. Within hours a new radio site could be ready for initial tests in preparation for turn-over to the customer.

I assume the rear container houses the power equipment (battery strings/rectifiers/UPS/distribution panels). A small generator probably provides emergency power. There is an exhaust pipe, an air vent with filter and a caution sign on the door.




The front container houses the radio gear due to the antenna connector panel being on the side wall. Note the large number of coax cables. There are a lot of antennas at this site.







The section of the antenna farm that I explored, located on the north western part of the former golf course, contains at least eight Yagi antenna arrays. These are directional antennas for focusing the transmitted signal in a specific direction. Even today, the Yagi is a very commonly used antenna for many applications. The antenna shape alone does not tell us what this particular radio site would have been used for.



base of one of the many antenna towers



Yagi antenna array

There are rumors but it would be interesting to know exactly what was the purpose of this abandoned site. It can’t say that it qualifies as another mystery of Corregidor because someone must know.

[okla]

Hey Fots....I was experiencing the first pangs of withdrawal and, as usual, you come to the rescue. This installation is, indeed, interesting especially since nobody seems to know much about it. Do you suppose it was some secret communications layout of the now defunct Marcos regime. If so, located out on isolated Corregidor would be an extremely secure location. This is, of course, strictly a product of my over active imagination. Just a shot in the dark on my part, but you will have to admit that I made an effort. Cheers. Postscript....That one sign, its' style, design, etc can almost date when the site was in operation, methinks. I will await information that blows my theory out of the water.

[fots2]

Hey okla, your guess is the same as the rumor...

[EXO]

One can easily see from Fots' comprehensive picture coverage that the immediate area is a defunct antenna farm of some sort. The issue is whether it was civil, military or one as a cover for the other.

I have two possible stories on this.

The first is that the installation was the control point for an experimental navigation aid which was to be used to improve inter-island and harbor navigation throughout the Philippines.

Yeah. Sounds like a cover story to me.

The other story takes us back into the deep dark Marcos-as-military-strongman days, during which Marcos was spending big dollars developing the country's self-reliant posture. (Self-Reliance is a traditional political game, for any number of players, in which the object is to obtain VAST amounts of overt and covert funding from a foreign government by playing off that government’s defense department against the possibility of another potential competitor attaining influence in the immediate socio-political arena. The winner gets something to put in a Swiss Bank Account.) During the 1970's, there was a lot of stray Libyan money around, and the US was still supporting (funding) Marcos.

The Philippines was developing their own "self-reliant" missile capability. There were all sorts of projects – for example, a 106mm surface to surface battlefield rocket of the Philippine Navy was being developed during the 1970's, and later, a bigger 180mm version was developed for launch from a truck. There was also a rocket project called "Project Santa Barbara" which was intended for ASW use. One of the rockets/missiles was also known as the ”BongBong” which, coincidentally, also happens to be the name of Marcos’ son and heir.

Whatever system it was, we do know as a matter of certainty that some of this development work was being done on Caballo.

I don't accept that they had a really big load of wet concrete
that they didn't know what to do with,
and that the only place they could find to pour it was the
gun pit at Battery Gillespie.

My guess is that this Corregidor installation was some form of radio net which was tied into the command and control structure of what was going on over at Caballo. Whether the radio antennae are active or passive, I don't know.

When the Libyan money dried up, the Libyans went home. Well, they aren’t the big spenders in Manila as they used to be.
The Philippine Navy at one time even sported some British blowpipe missiles installed on a swivel mount on a patrol boat. The missiles are old by now, and have probably been scrapped - though one fellow on a forum suggests that any missiles which the PN might still have may be in "secret storage to protect them the seawater and climate either at Caballo island which is the PN's ammo depot or at the Cavite naval base.”

Whatever the truth is, the installation is a dump, an example for all of how governments burden subsequent generations with unwanted inheritances. I for one would welcome its scrapping – but only upon the condition that the entire installation, even the concrete pad on which it stands and the road which leads to it should be removed from the island.

[fots2]

I’ll take door #2. Myth and legend are often based in truth.

Does anyone know what it was for sure?

Getting rid of the site is a good idea. Those generators could be put to good use elsewhere on the island.

[buster]

They could always turn it into another souvenir shop, perhaps.

[okla]

Hey Guys....I second the motion for Door #2 and I also vote for removing the whole site. It doesn't belong, along with some other "eyesores" that we all would agree upon. The story behind this installation might have a very simple explanation and be very uninteresting, but as of now, I have my "wonders". Fots, have you opened a "Pandora's Box"??

[fots2]

Here is one aspect of Corregidor that I have not seen mentioned on this board so here are a few photos for you.

A Search and Rescue Vehicle of the Philippine Coast Guard, the BRP Pampanga (SARV 003) visits Corregidor Island.




Approaching the South Dock.











The Philippines Coast Guard Station on Corregidor Island