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May 27, 1941

Briefly, the situation in the Philippines, a US territory with a Commonwealth Gov’t. led by Pres. Quezon, whose legislature passed CA #1, Defense Act, is progressing well towards the 1946 Independence.  Defense law framed by Advisors MacArthur & Eisenhower anchors on Phil. Army (PA) with sea  going sv (OSP) and air (PAAC) as mere branches like Inf., Arty., CAC etc.  PC as  nucleus, PMA replaced PCA to produce Reg O’s for regular army. Defense patterned after Swiss citizen army conscript concept. Phil. divided to 10 Mil. areas with various Training Cadres, each area to produce 4,000 trained men per year.

By 1946, we will have 400,000 citizen army, 250 planes and 50 Torpedo boats.  Reserve O’s will come from ROTC or other O’s Schools.  PA C/S is Maj. Gen. Basilio Valdes; C,PC B/Gen G. Francisco.

Peace and order, civil service excellent. Every young man is eager to join the military, trainees enthusiastic and many high school grads want to go to PMA.  Our Class ’40 graduated last year and ’41 two months ago.  I  selected the OSP for we are a maritime country. We graduated from OSP School last March and are now busy undergoing  extensive sea duty training aboard three Q-Boats.  When we graduated from PMA  in 1940, the 79 members of the class went:  29 to Inf; 17 PAAC; 10 OSP; CAC & CE 7 each; SigC 2; Cav 1.  Nobody chose PC.  MacArthur still Mil. Advisor;  Eisenhower left in 1939 for CONUS replaced by Sutherland; Lt. Sidney L. Huff, Navy Advisor.

Our 3-Q Boat Training Cruise arrived noon at Muelle del Codo, Port Area Manila, where the Off-Shore Patrol HQ and facilities are located. It was a most enlightening training as student Os were rotated  in asgmts as Navigator, Gunnery, Engineering, Mess & Fin, ExO and CO posts.  We were 15 student Os namely Lts. Nestor Reinoso ’34; Simeon Castro and A. Navarrete both ’35; J. Magluyan ’37; M. Castillo ’38; A. Palencia & S. Nuval ’38; C. J. Albert ’39; and R. Alcaraz, H. Alano, F. Apolinario, A. C. Campo, Q. Evangelista, C. Montemayor, L. Picar all ’40. Lt. R. Olbes, our PMA Baron requested transfer to CE as he was always sea sick.

We visited Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu, Luisan, Malampaya and western Palawan.  Was fascinated with overwhelming amount of fish in Malampaya Sound, the Tabon bird whose eggs seem to be bigger than the bird itself  and the tiny Mouse Deer we saw in Balabac.  Our Training was under the eagle eye of C, OSP Capt. Jose V. Andrada USNA ’31.

Let me comment briefly on my branch of service, Off-Shore Patrol (OSP), the youngest, born  Feb. 9, 1939 pioneered by Capt. Andrada ’31, Lt. A. Pecson ’33 and Lt. M. Castillo ’38 all USNA grads. Our facilities are located at Muelle del Codo adjacent to Engineer Island, Port Area, Manila.  Andrada handpicked his Os as when he interviewed us personally before grad at PMA. We have three British made motor tropedo boats we called Q-Boats. This is the Commonwealth’s entire navy in the making envisioned by MacArthur.

The first two Q-Boats were imported from England but the third was made in Engineer Island with engines imported from England. Eight Q-Boats are under construction and it is projected that by 1946, we will have a total of 50 Q-Boats. Assisting us in this program are Lt. Sidney Huff, USN and Chief Torpedo man Wm. Mooney USN.  British technicians from Thornycroft are Sam Howard and John Herndon.  Lt. Huff is also in the staff of Gen. MacArthur.