Attn: Subic Bay Vets

[Arizona Kid]

15 hours ago, Jake said:

During the peak of Vietnam war, Olongapo City was one of the favorite R&R port visits.  The photo below depicts a slow day.  Usually you will have side by side banca boats with young pretty girls with large bamboo cones to catch the coins thrown from above.  They would hawk -- hey Joe, throw me coin. lub you no chit.

Some coins are purposely thrown outside the reach of the girls and that's when the "coin divers" go into action.  Olongapo River (Shit River) is the main drainage into Subic Bay.  You can imagine all the dead and live bio-hazards floating and sinking to the bottom where the coins are deeply embedded in that muck.  

It was their livelihood and apparently a good one during that time.  

If I had to guess how many times I've physically crossed that bridge. At the very least 100. 7 Wespacs. If you keep going straight after you cross it's Magsaysay Ave. Take the first right it's Gordon Ave. That was me and my friends hangout. In the 70's if you went to the end of Magsaysay and went left, you would end up in the so called jungle. It's where the black guys established themselves. Went there once and was not welcome. Thanks for the pic. Brings back some really forgotten memories. 

[Arizona Kid]

On 3/10/2020 at 8:32 PM, OnMyWay said:

Jack Walker of RAO Subic

Just wondering if you know that Jim Boyd is the founder of the RAO. He's based in Angeles City. I make yearly donations to his foundation.

[OnMyWay]

41 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

If you keep going straight after you cross it's Magsaysay Ave.

That building in the picture is now the site of SM City Olongapo.  The smallest SM in the world, we call it.

41 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

Take the first right it's Gordon Ave.

The SM is on the corner of Magsaysay and Gordon.

42 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

In the 70's if you went to the end of Magsaysay and went left, you would end up in the so called jungle.

I'm not sure if you mean the end of Magsaysay where there is a traffic circle.  There are still quite a few bars down in that area.

Instead of turning right on Gordon, if you go left, the major thing over there now is Columban College and Columban Parish.

[OnMyWay]

13 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

Just wondering if you know that Jim Boyd is the founder of the RAO. He's based in Angeles City. I make yearly donations to his foundation.

Yes, I have met Jim.  He is the official IRS acceptance agent in Luzon and helped my wife get her ITIN a few years ago.

Jack Walker from Subic RAO I met a few years ago at the RAO, but I did not realize that when I moved out of my first Subic rental house, he moved in.  That was over 5 years ago and he is still there.  His daughter goes to the same school as my eldest, so we gave him some hand-me-down uniforms a few weeks ago.

[Heeb]

14 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

That building in the picture is now the site of SM City Olongapo.  The smallest SM in the world, we call it.

The SM is on the corner of Magsaysay and Gordon.

I'm not sure if you mean the end of Magsaysay where there is a traffic circle.  There are still quite a few bars down in that area.

Instead of turning right on Gordon, if you go left, the major thing over there now is Columban College and Columban Parish.

"The jungle" was from the traffic circle to the SBMA gate by Gordon Hospital. The gate by Gordon Hospital wasn't there when the base was open, I'm not sure when they erected it, Magsaysay drive wasn't one way back then but their wasn't much traffic. Just about every building you see now on both Rizal ave and Magsaysay and the streets between up until the traffic circle were bars or clubs back then and also Gordon ave, at the Victory liner circle going out to the market there were some Filipino clubs. My station dito friends and I liked to go out to Barrio Baretto especially when the fleet was in because it was quiet, imagine what the town would be like with 10,000 Arizona Kids running around drinking mojo and sam miguel.

[Arizona Kid]

7 hours ago, Heeb said:

"The jungle" was from the traffic circle to the SBMA gate by Gordon Hospital. The gate by Gordon Hospital wasn't there when the base was open, I'm not sure when they erected it, Magsaysay drive wasn't one way back then but their wasn't much traffic. Just about every building you see now on both Rizal ave and Magsaysay and the streets between up until the traffic circle were bars or clubs back then and also Gordon ave, at the Victory liner circle going out to the market there were some Filipino clubs. My station dito friends and I liked to go out to Barrio Baretto especially when the fleet was in because it was quiet, imagine what the town would be like with 10,000 Arizona Kids running around drinking mojo and sam miguel.

Take a right at the end of Magsaysay. A left at lower bahack bayock (spelling not good) You get to Barrio Barreto. A little further on was Subic city if I remember correctly. Great places to go if you just want to drink beer and play pool. American Legion on the strip was my favorite during the day. They actually had toilet paper in the CR.