SUBIC BAY, Republic of the Philippines (March 21, 2019) -- United States Navy mine countermeasures ship USS Pioneer (MCM 9) docks at almost-iconic (to most any Pacific Fleet sailor over the past 60 years) Alava Pier for a port visit.
Subic Bay Naval Base was, for all practical purposes, a homeport for most U.S. Navy ships deployed to the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) (and, earlier, in the late 1960s-early 1970s, to fight in the Vietnam War)....just across the South China Sea.
During the 1970s and 1980s (my own prime years out there)....this is what the piers looked like on most any given day at Naval Base Subic Bay. (Alava Pier is on the far left....lined with American cruisers, destroyers and a fleet oiler.) Note the submarines and nuclear-powered cruiser on the right....at the highly-skilled Ship Repair Facility.
Alas, in 1992, the United States relinquished control of the strategically-located base....and the Philippines turned the well-built port into a thriving commercial zone.
In recent years, the U.S. Navy has begun returning to Subic for port visits, some repairs and maintenance....and, hopefully, in the years ahead, a renewed primary role....as China becomes increasingly menacing and aggressive in the region.
Back in the old neighborhood (for all of us WESTPAC sailors)....
The lengthy, and familiar, Alava Pier stretches along the bottom of the photo above. The Subic Bay Naval Base encompassed the land up to the canal near the top....with the welcoming city of Olongapo on the other side.
The magnificent natural harbor at Subic Bay....
....centrally-located in the Republic of the Philippines....close to the capital city of Manila....and adjacent to the Bataan peninsula, jutting towards Manila Bay -- where the infamous Bataan Death March (causing the death of thousands of Filipino and American soldiers) occurred during World War II....
....with a strategic location on the edge of the South China Sea....Vietnam to the west, and China and Taiwan to the north.....
....on the far reaches of the western Pacific (WESTPAC).
This was “home” to countless thousands of sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines over a good part of the last century. I was blessed to be one of them!
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>>Top photo: Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joshua Mortensen, USN
Mine countermeasures ship USS Pioneer (MCM 9)....before arrival in Subic Bay.
