Typhoon, earthquake, typhoon again.

Some of you may not know that Clark Air Base in the Philippines sets out in the planes of Pampanga Province on the main island of Luzon.  It is surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges and by Manila Bay to the south.  About 60 miles to the west of Clark was Mount Pinatubo.  After I had been at Clark for about six months, we were given a typhoon warning.  It was coming up north from Manila Bay.  It came north and ran right over the top of Clark.  After it left, we were down at our work site, in our trick bay, we decided to take a break and go outside of the building.  Our work building had a long two foot deep trench in the concrete floor for all the electrical cables to run.  This trench was covered by metal plates, two feet wide by three feet long.  The trench ran the whole length of the building.  Before we could get to the door to the outside, we heard a rumbling.  We looked down to the other end of the building and we watched the metal covers shaking and rattling, moving down the hall toward us.  The whole building started shaking.  It was an earthquake.  Well, as I said before, Mount Pinatubo was close to Clark so we were getting moved around by the earth shaking.  After our break, we went back to work.  The typhoon that had just hit us got caught by the mountain rage to the east, turned north, got caught there and turned west. When it hit the mountains to the west, it turned back south, so we got hit by the same typhoon twice.  We had put in 16 hours of work that day.

Our work building was a big, long building with a government fence around it.  It was actually a double fence, and both of them had barbed wire at the top.  We had a small building at the back that housed our incinerator.  We would get picked to be on burn detail every once in a while.  We would have to go around the building and collect all the bags that needed to be burned.  The incinerator had a stack about 50 feet into the air and it had a small, fine screen at the top to keep paper from flying away.  After burning, the ashes had to be removed and watered down.

This double fence that ran around the whole compound was also a dog run.  The MPs (Military Police) K-9 unit would bring two to three dogs and turn them loose inside the two fences.  The dogs seemed friendly, but we were warned to not mess with them.

We had to show our ID cards and the card that we had to wear around our necks before we could gain entrance through the gate and again to get into the door, past the guard.  After coming through the gate, we had to walk down a sidewalk to our left.  After walking the width of the building, the side walk turned to the right.  Between the sidewalk and the inside fence, was a little fish pond with a fountain to make the water flow.  This was called the Duck Pond, but I never did see a duck.  This was also a promotion pond.  When you were promoted, you took a dip in the duck pond.  Your so called friends made sure of that.  Well, I was promoted to Specialist 4th class, SP/4.  I just knew that that evening I was going into the drink.  As we turned the corner heading for the front door, my friends grabbed me.  They started swinging me back and forth by my arms and legs and was just about to let go when one of them noticed a cobra in the water.  Needless to say, they did not throw me in, but when they took the SP/4 pins that fit on the collar of the fatigues,  they pulled off the backing of the pins and hit it so the back of the pins went through the collar, and into the skin underneath.  Needless to say, my collar area was black and blue for a week afterwards.

Well, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life........Til next time. . .

God speed my friends. . . .