Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 03 by Sky Masters (v1.1) Page A
Authors: Sky Masters (v1.1)
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Sangley Point Naval Station, Point San Miguel Air Force Station, Camp O’Donnell , Camp John Hay, Wallace Air Station, Mount Cabuyo , Mactan Airfield, and dozens of Philippine
Coast Guard and National Guard bases.
In essence, Clark Air Base had been
a vital link to the Pacific and a major forward base for the United States and its allies since it opened in 1903. Now
it was all being handed back to the Philippines—handed back to them during some
of the most volatile and dangerous times in the country’s history.
Stone’s gaze moved from his
country’s flag to the throngs of noisy protesters outside the perimeter fence
less than a kilometer away. At least ten thousand protesters pressed against
the barbed wire-topped fences, shouting anti-American slogans and tossing
garbage over the brick wall; Stone had arranged armored personnel carriers
every one hundred yards along the wall surrounding the base to counter just such
a demonstration. The Americans inside those carriers were armed only with
sidearms and tear-gas-grenade launchers, and the Filipino troops and riot
police outside the gates had nothing more lethal than fat rubber bullets. They
were being pelted by rocks and bottles so badly that the carrier’s crews dared
not poke their heads out or even open one of the thin eye-portals. The throngs
could easily overrun them all if they were stirred up. Occasionally a shot
could be heard ringing out over the din of the crowd. Stone realized that,
after weeks of these protests, he no longer jumped when he heard the gunfire.
The Thirteenth Air Force commander
had aged far beyond his fifty years in just the last few months. Of no more
than medium height, with close-cropped silver hair, piercing blue eyes, broad
shoulders narrowing quickly to a trim waist, and thin racehorse ankles, Stone
was a soft-spoken yet energetic fighter pilot who had risen through the ranks
from a “ninety-day-wonder” Officer Training School pilot candidate during the
Vietnam War to a two-star general and commander of a major military
installation defending a principal democratic ally and guarding America’s western
flank. In the past year, however, he had found himself supervising a degrading,
ignoble withdrawal from the base and the country he had learned to love so
well. It was deeply depressing.
From a contingent of nearly eleven
thousand men and women only twelve months earlier, Stone had assembled the last
remaining two hundred American military personnel on the mall in front of the
reviewing stand, to march one last time in parade. Although there were supposed
to be ten persons from each of the twenty resident and tenant organizations on
the base, Stone knew that most of the two hundred men and women who marched
before him were security policemen, who had been hand-picked to ensure the
safety of General Stone and the other Americans from Clark AB as they departed
that day.
Part of the reason for the huge
demonstration outside the perimeter fence was the presence of the two Filipino
men on the reviewing stand with Stone: Philippine President Arturo Mikaso, and
First Vice President Daniel Teguina. Teguina had carried the cry for the Philippines to cut all ties with the West and to not
renew the leases on American military bases. Unlike the refined and elderly
Mikaso, Daniel Teguina liked to be in the public eye, and he carefully polished
his image to reflect the young radical students and peasants that he believed
he represented. He dressed in more colorful, contemporary clothes, dyed his
hair to hide the gray, and liked to appear in nightclubs and at soccer matches.
The National Democratic Front,
despite reputed ties to the New People’s Army, the organization that controlled
the Communist-led Huk insurgents in the outlying provinces, flourished under
the Mikaso-Teguina coalition government. Under
Coast Guard and National Guard bases.
In essence, Clark Air Base had been
a vital link to the Pacific and a major forward base for the United States and its allies since it opened in 1903. Now
it was all being handed back to the Philippines—handed back to them during some
of the most volatile and dangerous times in the country’s history.
Stone’s gaze moved from his
country’s flag to the throngs of noisy protesters outside the perimeter fence
less than a kilometer away. At least ten thousand protesters pressed against
the barbed wire-topped fences, shouting anti-American slogans and tossing
garbage over the brick wall; Stone had arranged armored personnel carriers
every one hundred yards along the wall surrounding the base to counter just such
a demonstration. The Americans inside those carriers were armed only with
sidearms and tear-gas-grenade launchers, and the Filipino troops and riot
police outside the gates had nothing more lethal than fat rubber bullets. They
were being pelted by rocks and bottles so badly that the carrier’s crews dared
not poke their heads out or even open one of the thin eye-portals. The throngs
could easily overrun them all if they were stirred up. Occasionally a shot
could be heard ringing out over the din of the crowd. Stone realized that,
after weeks of these protests, he no longer jumped when he heard the gunfire.
The Thirteenth Air Force commander
had aged far beyond his fifty years in just the last few months. Of no more
than medium height, with close-cropped silver hair, piercing blue eyes, broad
shoulders narrowing quickly to a trim waist, and thin racehorse ankles, Stone
was a soft-spoken yet energetic fighter pilot who had risen through the ranks
from a “ninety-day-wonder” Officer Training School pilot candidate during the
Vietnam War to a two-star general and commander of a major military
installation defending a principal democratic ally and guarding America’s western
flank. In the past year, however, he had found himself supervising a degrading,
ignoble withdrawal from the base and the country he had learned to love so
well. It was deeply depressing.
From a contingent of nearly eleven
thousand men and women only twelve months earlier, Stone had assembled the last
remaining two hundred American military personnel on the mall in front of the
reviewing stand, to march one last time in parade. Although there were supposed
to be ten persons from each of the twenty resident and tenant organizations on
the base, Stone knew that most of the two hundred men and women who marched
before him were security policemen, who had been hand-picked to ensure the
safety of General Stone and the other Americans from Clark AB as they departed
that day.
Part of the reason for the huge
demonstration outside the perimeter fence was the presence of the two Filipino
men on the reviewing stand with Stone: Philippine President Arturo Mikaso, and
First Vice President Daniel Teguina. Teguina had carried the cry for the Philippines to cut all ties with the West and to not
renew the leases on American military bases. Unlike the refined and elderly
Mikaso, Daniel Teguina liked to be in the public eye, and he carefully polished
his image to reflect the young radical students and peasants that he believed
he represented. He dressed in more colorful, contemporary clothes, dyed his
hair to hide the gray, and liked to appear in nightclubs and at soccer matches.
The National Democratic Front,
despite reputed ties to the New People’s Army, the organization that controlled
the Communist-led Huk insurgents in the outlying provinces, flourished under
the Mikaso-Teguina coalition government. Under
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