It was a hard act to follow. The crowds that attended Benigno Aquino’s funeral procession in 1983 were the largest ever seen in Manila, despite the fact that only one radio station — the church owned Radio Veritas — covered the event. The occasion was widely understood not only as funerary, but political: the procession in 1983 was a symbol of the death of democracy; attendance an act of solidarity with its victims; and mourning a tacit protest against the dictator. When Corazon Aquino was buried on August 5 (EST) 2009, the crowds of 26 years before were far surpassed. The city ground to a halt. Ships sounded their mournful horns at harbor. Bells rang and throngs stood in the rain along the 14 mile route to the cemetery. Former Philippine Ambassador to the Vatican Howard Dee said:
“I was in Magsaysay’s and Ninoy’s funeral. This is the greatest outpouring of love the nation has ever witnessed.” Dee, … was referring to the funerals of President Ramon Magsaysay in 1957 and of Aquino’s murdered husband, opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., in 1983.
Like those events, this funeral was also political. The Aquino family had pointedly refused a state funeral and mourned her instead as an honored daughter of the Church, laying her in the coffin with a rosary in her hand. It was a pointed slap at the current President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who had been accused of trying to extend her term of office past its constitutional limit, a la the Honduran Zelaya. Her carefully staged trip to Washington had been wholly eclipsed by Aquino’s death, from which she returned in haste. She was clearly unwelcome and made a brief, almost furtive appearance at the wake. Her reception was correct. No one would have called it warm. Even in death Cory would bar authoritarianism.
That procession in the rain was Cory’s last duty of state; the final act in the public drama. It was also, to those who understood it, the concluding chapter in a love story. At the end of the cortege was a relatively modest grave, no grander than that which a successful small businessman might have, dug beside the spot where Ninoy lay. It was where she wanted to go. When she first learned she had colon cancer more than a year ago, Aquino told her family she would refuse aggressive treatment. Her time, she said, had come. Her daughter Kris related how, when the end was near, she was called back into the room by a nurse from the corridor, where she had stepped out to drink some coffee. Cory bade her daughter bend and said, “I can see him now. Your father is holding out his hand to me.” Dylan Thomas wrote of grave men “near death, who see with blinding sight”; of those on their deathbeds who, perhaps from the effects of medication, delirium or that blinding sight see before them those to whom they would come. Underneath the story of the People Power revolution was also a story of a woman who avenged her husband and reached out to him across the gulf of death with the frail hand of love.
Cory’s tale is finished, but the story goes on; those who follow bear full upon their shoulders the duty to lay a few more sparks across the band of night. Now she can rest and become once again Maria Corazon Cojuangco instead of Cory. When they married in 1955, Ninoy was a 22 year old who had been to Korea as a war correspondent at 17; who served as a security adviser to Ramon Magsaysay at 21 and had negotiated, only the year before, the surrender of the leader of the HUKs. Maria Corazon was a year younger, returned from a stint as a campaign volunteer for Thomas Dewey after an education at Ravenhill in Philadelphia, Notre Dame Convent School in New York and the College of Mount Saint Vincent, where she had majored in mathematics and French. She would have understood the words of a song that was popular then; in the days before the joy and sorrow, before that last journey in the rain.
Si un jour la vie t’arrache à moi
Si tu meurs, que tu sois loin de moi
Peu m’importe, si tu m’aimes
Car moi je mourrai aussi
In what may have been foreshadowing, the assassination of Ninoy Aquino is one I distinctly recall. I had no idea as to the role the Philippines, its people, and its culture would come to play in my life, when Ninoy was assassinated.
It is quite a testament to Filipinos they maintained a respectful demeanor when PGMA showed up. We all know that demeanor was not upheld in Minnesota back in 2002 at Senator Wellstone’s funeral.
Lately, I started following The Daily Inquirer and Manuel Quezon III on twitter and the tweets detailing the wake and the funeral were touching.
Cory’s struggles are over, may she with her husband find peace.
And now America waits for our candidate in a yellow dress.
The woman who in yellow dressed
Confounded those who would attest
That might makes right and force will rule the day
She had no ships, no guns no tanks
And yet the world owes her its thanks
For showing us that courage is the way
And now she joins the chosen few
The ones who stood for what they knew
Was right and just, with light that lit the world
That shone in every darkened place
Where diktat dared to show its face
And gave her country freedom’s flag unfurled
Psalms-131:
“1. O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
2. But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3. O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore.”
Reason cannot explain the truth of justice.
Faith fails to give justice to the truth.
It is only in the arms of our brothers and sisters that we may find the light of the souls of the saints.
I am sorry for the loss of Cory Aquino. Her passing has significance to all who admire the human spirit.
How fortunate when a people is graced with a leader of integrity. At our beginning we were blessed with Founding Fathers of such quality, led by the remarkable George Washington. Without them we would not have had one of the few (if not the only) revolutions that did not morph into something worse than what it replaced.
So too with Cory Aquino. Thank you for your eloquent rememberance with its deep insight and bracing implications. An awesome story indeed.
God bless Mrs Aquino and her family. Truly she tried to live a Life in Christ. I hope one day her country will be everything she dreamed it could be.
BAYAN KO
Ang bayan kong Pilipinas
Lupain ng ginto’t bulaklak
Pag-ibig ang sa kanyang palad
Nag-alay ng ganda’t dilag.
At sa kanyang yumi at ganda
Dayuhan ay nahalina
Bayan ko, binihag ka
Nasadlak sa dusa.
Ibon mang may layang lumipad
Kulungin mo at umiiyak
Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag
Ang di magnasang makaalpas!
Pilipinas kong minumutya
Pugad ng luha ko’t dalita
Aking adhika,
Makita kang sakdal laya.
The English translation of “Bayan Ko.”
MY COUNTRY
My country the Philippines
Land of gold and flowers
With love in her palms
She offers beauty and virtue.
And of her modesty and beauty
The foreigner was attracted
O, my country, you were enslaved
Mired in hardship.
Even birds that are free to fly
Cage them and they cry,
Much more a beautiful country
Shall long to be free.
Philippines my beloved,
Cradle of my tears and poverty
I’ll aspire,
To see you truly free.
*********
She is free of the pains and heartache of this life. May she dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Richard –
I tried to leave this comment on the previous thread about Cory, but that was when several of the comment sections were going haywire, and my remarks somehow got blottoed.
Anyway – you were the first person I thought of when I heard the news of her death. The “Abide With Me” hymn you linked to was a beautiful, and appropriate, choice.
There are a few basic beliefs that I have about my country.
1a) Forms, procedures, precedent and Constitutional structures should be respected.
1b) We should always be open to innovation and Amendment and reject proven failure.
2a) Federalism is the most successful system ever devised for harnessing diverse communities in liberty.
2b) Neither the States nor the Federal government are filling their proper functions at the present time.
3a) Illegal immigrants should be removed from America and their children should not be granted birthright citizenship.
3b) America is a vast empty nation that should welcome more legal immigrants then we presently admit.
4a) Admission to the Union, as a citizen or as a state is a privilege that should be difficult to obtain.
4b) Just as America should welcome new immigrants it should remain open to the accession of new states.
5a) Both Cuba and the Philippines were opposed at different times by interests from the North and South that discouraged them from seeking statehood in the Union. These forces represented racial, religious and commercial partisans that at different times encouraged or discouraged efforts to admit these territories and further expand the United States.
5b) Our histories and fates are closely bound together and we have suffered by our rejection of those who believe in the American ideal more then many Americans do.
(The edit monster got me at the finish)
The logical conclusion of these beliefs is that it will be a good day for America when we can welcome the people of Manila and Baguio and Cebu to join us if they so choose as fellow citizens of our Commonwealth.
That’s beautiful, Richard. Thank you.
Richard:
For you and yours and for Ms. Aquino:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2WMhaogDsI
I had to refresh my memory because I was very young at the time about Cory Aquino. It looks like she was supported by her people and the USA.
I am not exactly sure why there were seven or so military insurrections. That seems like a lot. I am wondering if it was bad economic times or someone trying a grab power.
What is the real story?
Here is what I found:
Corazon “Cory” Aquino
From 1986 to 1989, Aquino was confronted with a series of attempts[26] at military interventions by some members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, aimed at the overthrow of the Aquino government. Most of these attempts were instigated by the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), a group of middle-ranking officers closely linked with Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile.[27] Soldiers loyal to former President Marcos were likewise involved in some of these attempts. The first five of the attempts were either crushed before they were put in operation, or repelled with minimal or no violence. The sixth attempt, staged on August 28, 1987, left 53 people dead and over 200 wounded, including Aquino’s son, Noynoy.[28] The seventh and final attempt, which occurred throughout the first week of December, 1989, ended with 99 dead (including 50 civilians) and 570 wounded.[29]
Across-the-board wage increases for soldiers were also granted.[37]
http://tinyurl.com/lam7a7
The coup was led by Colonel Gregorio Honasan, General Edgardo Abenina, and retired General Jose Ma. Zumel, and staged by an alliance of the RAM, led by Honasan, and troops loyal to Marcos, led by Zumel.[1] At the onset of the coup, the rebels seized Villamor Airbase, Fort Bonifacio, Sangley Airbase, Mactan Airbase in Cebu, and portions of Camp Aguinaldo.[2] From Sangley Airbase, the rebels launched planes and helicopters which bombarded and strafed Malacañang Palace, Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo.[3] Government forces would recapture all military bases save for Mactan Airbase by December 3, but rebel forces retreating from Fort Bonifacio occupied 22 high-rise buildings along the Ayala business area in Makati.[4] The occupation of Makati lasted until December 7, while the rebels surrendered Mactan Airbase on December 9.[3] The official casualty toll was 99 dead (including 50 civilians) and 570 wounded.[5]
The United States military supported the Aquino government during this coup.
Operation “Classic Resolve” involved the use of U.S. airpower from the USS Midway (CV-41) and USS Enterprise aircraft carriers and F-4 Phantom II fighters from Clark Air Base. The U.S. planes had clearance to “…buzz the rebel planes at their base, fire in front of them if any attempted to take off, and shoot them down if they did”.
http://tinyurl.com/nygccd
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Belmont Club:
I had a lot of concern and a certain amount of involvement in the events that led to the People Power Revolution of 1986.
I have been at a loss for words to express proper sentiments at the passing of Corazon Aquino.
My heartfelt thanks to all of you for so eloquently doing what I was unable to do.
At the BC, I am indeed in rare company.
There are of course many war stories to be told about late 1985 through Februrary of 1986. One of the untold ones involves how a former Arizona Congressman (Sam Steiger by name) played a unique go between role, not once but twice. First time it was Sam who opened Cardinal Sin’s eyes about the American right. This was 1984. He did it because I asked him to.
Second time Sam was relaying information. One day, he called me instead and gave me a message from Paul Laxalt: “Dave, pull leather. Other guys may be okay, but we are riding with the Widow Aquino. She is the only one who has got what it takes.”
I shut up and stopped making recommendations.
Hung on, and they were right. He works in mysterious ways.
Please excuse my intruding upon this memorial to Cory Aquino, but Mr Fernandez, you are not an American and so may have a better outlook than most people when it comes to American cultural attitudes. In particular, could you think about Sarah Palin and her effect upon the Left and the Right?? I listened to Crowder and Hicks and Whittle talk of the Governor, and I just cannot understand what their problem is. I had no problem understanding Palin’s farewell address. It doesn’t puzzle me at all. Yet, Karl Rove is ‘puzzled.’ Crowder keeps calling her a ‘quitter’, which doesn’t make any sense to me either.
Can you think about this and put up an essay and maybe help me out here?
Dave, that is an interesting story about Sam Steiger. I know that both sides were fairly well armed. I guess it was a rocky situation.
“I have not always won but … I never shirked a fight,” she said in 1992 before handing power over to her successor, Fidel Ramos. But she did oversee the writing of a new constitution, which among other things limited a president’s time in office to one six-year term.
But “winning” is in the eye of the beholder, is it not? From my vantage point, what she did in ousting Ferdinand Marcos was more a miracle than a mere “win,” and undoubtedly assisted by her incredible faith in God. How else could someone so inexperienced have survived the tumult with the military after the departure of Marcos?
I remember distantly following Mrs. Aquino’s rise after the murder of her husband, although the last time I visited the Philippines was in my last squadron deployment to Diego Garcia. I was blessed to spend one last night in that beautiful country at Cubi Point NAS in July of 1984, enroute to the states. Even knowing of President Marcos’ ruthlessness and of his wife’s excesses, that aspect of the country for most military members was distantly “over the horizon,” and yet – ever-present.
She seemed to me to value the faith that most of us pursue more or less flaccidly and is epitomized to me by how closely she truly lived her beliefs. From my great distance, she seemed to epitomize gentleness, decency, and great resolve. God bless her and her husband for “running the race”, just as they were asked to – may they rest in peace.
In particular, could you think about Sarah Palin and her effect upon the Left and the Right??
What I can’t judge about Sarah P. is the sort of woman that’s she like. It’s plain that, as a package, she embodies certain cultural and “class” elements that mean different things to the Left and Right. But much more depends what she is as a person, and here I come to the end of my knowledge. You have to know the “type”. And I don’t know it.
I believe I knew Cory’s type perfectly; the iron matriarch. She was the kind of all-woman, all-nun, pistol-packing sort of gal, who depending on the situation, could beguile you, fast for thirty days before the image of the Sacred Heart or charge in on her cheating husband with a .45 in each hand blazing while he flung himself head-first through the nearest window. The sort of who would survive being struck by a truck after a half dozen operations on the strength of gallons of blood transfusions donated from an entire provincial jail, which you would latterly discover, she was the informal patroness of.
But what sort of woman is Sarah Palin? What is her type? I wish I could answer, but in all honesty I can’t.
ledger #16: You don’t know how tight things were until the spring of 1990. Little known is the presence of the GRU, enabling both Marcos, the NPA, some Moros, rebel AFP elements. After all, if the USSr had been able to gain control of the PI they would have gotten enough cash flow to stay in business a bith longer than they did.
I rate Fidel Ramos and Rene de Villa the brains behind getting through it all along with the Filipino Marine, Biazon. BUT, without that Saintly Iron Matriarch Wretch describes, there would not have been the absaolutley essential rallying point and symbol critical to survival.
In the final coup attempt against Cory in Dec 1989, both Dick Cheney and Colin Powell performed adroitly. Nonetheless, such a rescue mission by the US was subject to put Uncle Sam back into the colonial business and proving the PI a failed effort. But since it was to Cory’s rescue, why the intervention was considered most neighborly and not patronizing.
She was not a good administrator, but she was of such stern character that she did better than anybody else could have done under the circumstances.
heathermc #15: Let me try to fill in a bit about Sarah Palin. I know her type a bit better than Wretch I imagine.
She is an almost stereotypical frontierswoman
of the Anglo-Celt Border Culture. A do-everything gal who not only cooks the food but grows, kills, and otherwise prepares it.
Instinctive rather than intellectual, her interest in politics is to be sure that authority is more than balance with responsibility because that is the only thing that works. So she takes over for a while and then figures it is time to return to the plow. Raises a passel of young’uns while she
is at it. Says she is pro-life and proves it.
Physically attractive when young, she has also managed to maintain her looks into her 5th decade.
Her female admirers are thus women who would like to be like her. Her female enemies are
the envious, those who want her to be like them. Her male admirers are those who follow the ethic of “Women and children first!”. Her male enemies behave otherwise.
This will, I hope explain the socio-cultural aspects of the Palin phenom. They are more important than the ideological aspects.
Is she Presidential material? That remains to be seen. If she (a) really wants the job and (b) can build herself an organization that can get her the GOP nomination, then the answer is yes. If either of the preconditions is lacking , then the answer is no.
I of course would be the second Belmonter to hope for a yes answer. The first of course is Buddy Larsen who is a mere 47.876 miles ahead of me. But we both have got to wait and see.
BTW: If you have some (quite a bit) of reading time, I would recommend David Hackett
Fischer’s “Albion’s Seed” for a good look at that Border Culture. Another good look could be found in T. R. Fehrenbach’s “Lone Star, A History Of Texas and Texans”.
(Wretch, you reading this too?????)
And with that folks, I gotta get some shuteye.
To add on to Dave:
Sarah Palin is just the superstar version of what American women do.
College. Check.
Job. Check.
Marriage. Check.
Kids. Check.
House. Check.
Cook. Check.
Politics. Check.
In short, whatever it takes to keep life going on, to make it work, to do the best with what we have, and try to make it better.
Millions of American women love her because “she’s just like me” if I were all I intended to be.
Millions of American men love her because “she’s just like my wife” as I see her.
Dave,thank goodness you’re prone to that last burst of writing before the sandman gets ya. #20 is a gem. Patty, you’re right on, too imho. Palin is real, but that’s not the story –the story is the story –that we CAN be what we all know we were not very long ago before we got all ironic and postmodern and french philosopher. As a people, i mean.
As to her intellect, she’s a throwback to a more refined time (though the refinement is hidden as a natural part of itself, if that makes any sense) where her sort of person would not parade her religion, finances or brains, in front of others, on the (very slight, but that makes the point) chance it may discomfort or embarrass the present company. It used to be called “manners”, and yes it is an unstable suspension –oil and water –in politics.
all the above is natch “imho”.
Dave,thank goodness you’re prone to that last burst of writing before the sandman gets ya. #20 is a gem. Patty, you’re right on, too imho. Palin is real, but that’s not the story –the story is the story –that we CAN be what we all know we were not very long ago before we got all ironic and postmodern and french philosopher. As a people, i mean.
As to her intellect, she’s a throwback to a more refined time (though the refinement is hidden as a natural part of itself, if that makes any sense) where her sort of person would not parade her religion, finances or brains, in front of others, on the (very slight, but that makes the point) chance it may discomfort or embarrass the present company. It used to be called “manners”, and yes it is an unstable suspension –oil and water –in politics.
all the above is natch “imho”.
Dave,thank goodness you’re prone to that last burst of writing before the sandman gets ya. #20 is a gem. Patty, you’re right on, too imho. Palin is real, but that’s not the story –the story is the story –that we CAN be what we all know we were not very long ago before we got all ironic and postmodern and french philosopher. As a people, i mean.
As to her intellect, she’s a throwback to a more refined time (though the refinement is hidden as a natural part of itself, if that makes any sense) where her sort of person would not parade her religion, finances or brains, in front of others, on the (very slight, but that makes the point) chance it may discomfort or embarrass the present company. It used to be called “manners”, and yes it is an unstable suspension –oil and water –in politics.
all the above is natch “imho”.
I always think of Cory Aquino as “Mrs. Aquino” for some reason. I guess that’s the imprint from the 80s era news. Anyway, considering her as one of the 80s western political giants –the more so reading Dave’s reminder of the USSR’s interest (and re Subic Bay stunning success) –is the right frame for the lady. What i had forgotten until she passed away was what a sweet aspect she presented. In line with what Dave says about her being not an administrator or wonk, but an inspirational leader.
“Inspirational” doesn’t have to mean –tho it is often confused with –”charismatic”. It can come from the backstory.
So back to Palin –she doesn’t have to be President Wonk. Christ a mighty we should have learned how those are wont to turn out. What she has to be is “the American lady”. And then know her country’s spirit and soul –and have the openness and honesty to pick a team that sees it all pretty much that way too.
so she could do it. if that were the only question. whether the nation can survive another BDS Cloward-Piven –which is the left’s promise, and to make that promise is the reason it acts toward her the way it does now –is a whole nuther question.
Based on the eulogies of Mrs. Aquino by the knowledgeable folks here, it would seem the world needs more people like Cory Aquino.
RE: Luddy Barsen is right about Sarah Palin – everything I wanted to say, he already said. I suppose that’s why despite her obvious shortcomings, I would support Sarah Palin. She is a rallying point.
buckets. right –notice how, no matter how personal and cruel and vulgar her attackers may be, they cannot bait her into retaliating in kind.
Note, she may when necessary rail against their behavior, but she will not impugn the basic personhood of the very people who routinely do that to her –and to her family –and to her youngest children. she is intrinsically too good a person for that sordid sort of politics.
They are deliberately trying to break her down to their lowered standards. So far, no luck –they may use the system to force her into the ditch with ‘em, but tho they try and try she will not lie down with them in the mud.
This is itself a pretty sophisticated test –and she’s passing it with colors that fly the higher for every mudball they aim at her face.
Her (*cough*) quite lovely face.
Anyhoo, transfer her old-timey standards to the White House and just see how refreshed and zesty you’ll feel!
That is, if the ditch dwellers don’t make it all just too much to cope with –which at this point in time the bet has to be that this is exactly what they intend to do.
Sally Quinn launched one of the more recent slime attacks –and when FoxNews asked Quinn to explain it, she totally ignored the query re the slime she had thrown, and intead went off on some focus-group-phrased airy high-falutin gas cloud about her objection to Palin being on the grounds of “she could be sooo much more of a leader if only she’d try harder“.
I almost threw up.
Perhaps the most comforting thoughts – aside from faith in an afterlife – that a real patriot in a struggle against authoritarians can have are the twin thoughts that if he falls, two things will happen. One, someone will pick up the banner of liberty and carry it forward, and two, his family will be okay.
I imagine Benigno Aquino knew his wife would make sure the second happened, but I wonder if he was surprised that she took care of the first as well.
To Richard Fernandez,
My Dad was US Navy from the time he quit high school at age 16 in the early 1930′s and signed up so he could support his widowed mother. His first billet was a battleship built in the 1920′s, and he had a lot of stories of his first years in the peacetime Navy, in which sailors like him strung up hammocks in the casemates between massive breech mechanisms, shell and powder elevators and carriages, intercoms and lockers. His first day on board ship, he stepped into the casemate, and exchanged greetings with some older guy in a hammock as he set down his duffel. The other guy tossed his cap across the deck, “Clean my hat.” My dad tossed it back to him, “Clean it yourself.”
Turned out the guy was his leading chief, and my dad found himself cleaning the bilges for a couple of weeks. On the other hand, the chore got him an extra ration of buttermilk, and he didn’t even catch on that he was being punished until later. The chief was a good guy, and ended up really helping my Dad advance through his training and ratings.
But what prompted me to post was how my dad spoke always with such respect for the people of the Philippines, especially because of his acquaintance with a number of them in the USN. Before WWII, Filipinos in the fleet were mostly allowed to serve only in menial capacities, staffing kitchens and serving as wardroom attendants and such. My father’s service in the Pacific theater let him and a lot of other US servicemen see the steel and grace of the Philippine people. What I saw later growing up as a Navy brat was a number of families of folks who’d come to the US from Philippines via the USN. Pals and playmates, but moving so frequently I didn’t maintain any long friendships with them.
For me, the moment when I glimpsed what my father already knew, was after the murder of Benigno Aquino, in the days when it really looked as though Marcos was ready to crush and destroy his opponents. The news films of crowds of unarmed citizens facing the troops – peaceful but firm – stands for me as one of the finest moments of simple human “witnessing.” And God Bless ‘em, the troops refused to murder their own people to support the despot.
Cory Aquino stepped forward to accept the leadership of people who had loved her husband. It’s not clear that they knew her before, but she really confirmed their good judgment. I pray we have people of like courage and strength here in the US for the days that are coming.
MF, had an old neighbor (now RIP), name of John McCarty, who was a POW on the Bataan Death March. I used to buy hay from him. My old runabout, a ’76 Landcruiser (which i still have tho it’s now behind-the-barn furniture alas until i get offn duff and fixit) was not allowed on his property –i had to park out on the road and walk in to deal on the hay. he would talk if you asked him questions (i knew from his relatives in the area his WWII history). He said the Filipino civilians along the route were all that kept him alive –that they took terrible chances to run out and give water. Some got caught and murdered on the spot. They also found ways to sneak food to the camp perimeters. It was funny that i an avid reader knew the campaign better than he –who never read on it. All he knew was the real thing –and that it was the locals that saved their lives.
A must read! (see below paste from instapundit)
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Prairie-Fire Anger. “The approval ratings on nearly every one of the President’s key policy initiatives—cap-and-trade, health care overhaul, government take over of industry and finance, deficit spending, stimulus—are already less than half of polled voters. Obama’s own popularity has fallen dramatically and hovers near fifty percent. A number of well-publicized town meetings have erupted in shouting, as administration and congressional representatives try, often in condescending fashion, to explain the Obama agenda. The Republicans—written off just a few weeks ago as an obsolete party headed for oblivion—are now often polling higher in generic surveys than are Democrats. Why the sudden uproar?”
Posted at 2:51 pm by Glenn Reynolds
A Filipino freind tells me that when Imelda Marcos was Governor of Manila all of her big construction projects had big banners on them that said “Project of the First Lady.”
At the funeral for Ninoy the truck carrying his casket had a banner “Project of the First Lady.”
I knew by correspondence a Clyde Childress of Tucson. (Passed away in 2007 at age 90)
He competed to be a General’s aide, lost out and was sent to Mindanao to be an adviser to a Filipino Division that was just forming. It got scattered.
He was fortunate enough to escape and join the resistance under the overall command of Wendell Fertig. Therein he came to know Waldo Neveling, also of Tucscon, died 1978,
a German national who rendered valuable service to our side.
The late Judge William Browning, also of Tucson, was as a young boy an “internee” in Santo Tomas. His wife, Sinclair Browning, wrote a fictional book about those years. Damned hard to find unfortunately. Called “America’s Best”. It will make your blood run cold.
My wife lost her father to the Kempetai and some Filipino collaborators. My natural father bought the farm in a P38 a month before I was born. My adoptive father died at age 61 in part due to conditions encountered in pershing’s AEF.
My God! Every one of us is here by the skin of our teeth and the gallantry of those who came before us. And if that does not teach you humility, nothing will.
what got your dad’s ship, Dave? Wasn’t P38′s ‘compressibility’ problem was it?
95th Squadron had done a fighter sweep that day. Lost two planes over target. One took flak, pilot captured. One hit prop wash, pilot killed. Apparent vertigo was next problem.
Don Vial wrote the report: “We were at 8000 feet ten minutes off the Yugoslavian Coast when we suddenly encountered a thick haze and had to go on instruments. I got my instruments set and found I was hanging on my props. As I straightened up, I saw Lt Creech’s plane go over in a loop and disappear.”
That was 17 Aug 44. On 19 Aug they dropped chaff over Ploesti. Bill Stakhem lost one engine and was lagging behind on way home. Vial was assigned to accompany him. Vial said he was losing oil pressure and wanted more altitude in case he had to feather.
Since then, his whereabouts have been known but to God.
However, his report eventually led to Cotton Creech’s remains being recovered and interred at Ft Sam Houston in 1949. I was taken to that ceremony. I remember uniforms, Chaplain, Air Medal, Purple Heart, Flag, Firing Squad (that latter was NEAT!). Then the bugler started. And that is when it hit me. I understood in a flash of what kind of price had been paid and would continue to have to be paid. I have not forgotten.
Well Buddy, fer close shaves, try what happened to my good friend Charley Pinson in his P38.
Location: Armano Romani Refinery, Ploesti
Air Speed: 300 Knots
Altitude: 1,200 feet
Attitude: Nose down
Problem: 1000 lb pound refuses to release.
Now THAT was a plumb interesting day.
Later on, Charley was shot down, crash landed in a cornfield so the rows of dirt would extinguish the flames. Crawled away from the plane and was taken into custody by Romanian militia. Was treated at Romanian Air Force hospital where he was visited by the two who shot him down.
In POW camp he met Princess Catherine Caradja. Later on she picked him to command a “breakout squad” of armed POWs who were stationed in and around Bucharest spotting for the Romanian Armed Forces that made their last stand holding off local Nazis, Communists and advance elements of the Red Army while B17s landed, picked up POWs and flew them home. Charley just made the last B17 out. He knew the Princess during her years in the USA and was one of the guys who
finally paid her way home (with a new VW bus)
in 1991 so she could spend her last two years
at her old home. (Died 1993 slightly past age 100.)
Now do you think I could make all this up if I tried? No way> Truth be stranger than fiction.
man, that’s great stuff, Dave. I mean, not the bad things we wish had never happened, but the show of human spirit –including yours in making yourself know the weight of things –is great, great stuff.
That description of Mrs. Aquino was outrageously good, covering all the bases as it did–seductress, Madonna and Amazon. Well written, indeed!
If this isn’t the best site on the Internet, I can’t think of a better. Wretchard, you and your commentators are truly a joy to read. My thanks to all of you!