This is a file picture from a different source although I have taken many
pictures of my own over the times that I called on Manila I have not been able
to locate them. The first time I came to Manila was aboard USS KILAUEA in 1975.
Manila just like Hong Kong and Keelung was an anchorage port. We were always by
nature in Quarantine for the nature of our cargo. Now back in the Navy days we
would take one of our own boats to a short fleet landing near the Embassy. I can
recall Manila only in 1975 for the USS KILAUEA during the Navy days. I do
believe that when the USNS NAVASOTA returned from the I.O. in 1980 that we
called on Manila prior to berthing at Subic. I know that Manila was a port call
for the USNS GUADALUPE and I had rejoined the USNS SAN JOSE in Manila after
burying my wife's Mom in Cebu in 1996. My wife and I were actually on the same
plane into Manila. She would fly back to the states few days after SAN JOSE set
sail. I had only been with the SAN JOSE about 2 weeks when I got the word about
Mama's death. Thing about it was that we had visited there just a few months
before. But my wife and I used to live in Manila and we still had family there.
I think it was while on the GUADALUPE that my nephew Ryan, my niece Jennifer and
Brother in Law Jose came to visit the ship with me. Ryan got sick on the way
back because a Typhoon was starting to brew in the South China Sea and the waves
were starting to build. I had Cruise Jackets made for my wife and daughter while
we there on the GUADALUPE.
