GUIUAN: Its Strategic Location and Accessibility by Sea In my previous posts about the GUIUAN AIRPORT, its strategic location and viability as alternative airport to the Tacloban airport, it was on purpose that I did not mention of the strategic location of Guiuan and its accessibility by sea, the fact that I was zeroing on the topic of its airport. However, one reader, Jeremy Balondo, has brought up the strategic location of Guiuan as regards this particular aspect and the need to likewise point this out. Hence, I will. Guiuan, the southeastern-most town in Eastern Samar, like a forefinger in its geographical configuration, points out towards the Pacific Ocean. As such, the ocean is seen from its north down to its southern part, hence its strategic location and accessibility from the sea. For this reason, the U.S. Armed Forces had taken this aspect into prime consideration in their planning for the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the War of Liberation from the Japanese in World War II. As part of the plan, the Guiuan region, specified as US Naval Station, Samar, was made the center of the main naval activities, the command center of which was a low rectangular cement building which in the 1950’s became the Boys Department of the RVM-managed Assumption College and later the Msgr. Donato Guimbaolibot Memorial School. Through the years, having lately withstood the might of Typhoon Yolanda’s wrecking winds that devastated the town of Guiuan, this moss-encrusted building has remained standing for all to see, a silent reminder of the role it played during the War in the Pacific in World War II . As part of the World War II activities, ship repair was done in the island of Manicani, just across from Guiuan, where, in contrast to the smaller docks constructed in Calico-an, a much bigger dock was constructed there to handle big ocean-going ships. It was there where the U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Solace docked to bring the sick and injured American servicemen to the biggest naval hospital in the Guiuan region, the U.S. Naval Hospital in Manicani, on the mountain just behind our home, which also catered to the medical needs of Manicanis local residents. Because of Guiuan’s strategic location, another big hospital, Fleet Hospital 114, was constructed by the Seabees Construction Battalion and the 544 U.S. Navy Construction Battalion right out on the highway that ran from Guinan [sic] to Mercedes (in what is now the present Barangay Anuron) according to Tom Billis, a member of this battalion, in his email to me. According to Mr. Billis, this hospital “cared for the survivors of the [U.S. Navy ships] Indianapolis and Underhill as well as other war-connected incidents.” The Indianapolis was torpedoed by Japanese submarines while on its way to join in the Battle of the Leyte Gulf after bringing to Tinian in the Marianas islands the bomb that the Enola Gay dropped on Hiroshima. Fleet Hospital 114 likewise extended medical care to the residents of Guiuan, Mercedes, and their respective adjoining areas. Once confined there, were the mother and elder brother of my brother in-law who were residents of Sung-an, a barrio of Mercedes the municipality next to Guiuan. Fleet Hospital 114 was constructed in anticipation of the casualties of war which, according to Tom Billis, the Enola Gay and the bomb have limited and put an end to. After the war, Fleet Hospital 114 was decommissioned and everything was hauled to the Navy Supply Depot in Manicani. Part of the Fleet Hospital 114 area is today a coconut plantation that now belongs to my sister in-law, and is still referred to as hospital by the residents of Anuron, a barrio of Mercedes. Today, Guiuan has two main wharves, one near the public market and another, one aptly called Jetty which is in direct line with the GUIUAN AIRPORT. Both wharves still serve as docking points for motorized outriggers that ply the sea routes to and from the town and its adjoining islands, as well as cargo vessels bringing in goods and merchandise from Manila, Cebu, and Tacloban and to these places, fish and copra, the main products of Guiuan. Guiuan’s accessibility by sea, likewise made it easy in 1949, for most of the nearly 6000 White Russian refugees to be transported on ageing and rusty ships like the Hwa Lien from Shanghai to the island of Tubabao, where the Philippines, the only country to have agreed to grant them asylum, had placed them in the “Guiuan Refugee Camp” the name given to the former encampment of the US Marines in this island. A few of the White Russian refugees from Japan were brought by air from Manila to the Guiuan airport and from there by truck to Tubabao. It was also from Tubabao that the refugees were brought by ships, like the Marine Jumper, to Australia and the United States. In the wake of the devastation wrought by Typhoon Yolanda to the town of Guiuan, I sent letters of appeal to Pres. Obama, (The Audacity of Hope – A Letter To Obama, Facebook, November 13), to Vice Pres. Biden, the U.S. Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor (The Audacity of Hope – More Audacious Letters, Facebook, November 14). In these letters, aside from mentioning the WW II GUIUAN AIRPORT, I mentioned about the “naval ships and landing crafts that . . . easily docked near and on the beaches of Guiuan.” Later, it was heartening to see the contours of the USS George Washington photographed from Calico-an where from it flew 4 Blackhawks, 2 Apache helicopters and 2 V-22 Ospreys used during the entire day-and-night typhoon relief operations with the Guiuan Airport as hub. For the members of today’s younger generation in both Samar and Leyte who perhaps have not heard of the role Guiuan had played in the last war and even of the White Russians’ stay in one of Guiuan’s islands, the recent presence of a big vessel such as the USS George Washington more than underscores the ease with which Guiuan can be accessed by sea. And, as what has lately been pointed out, by air, via the GUIUAN AIRPORT. --------------- Top picture shows an aerial view of the southern part of the Guiuan airport in 1945 and the islands of Tubabao and Manicani. Seen jutting out to sea in line with the southern end of the airport runway is the US-made jetty, still presently called Jetty in Guiuan. The big island at the top of the picture is Manicani, the site of the American Naval Ship Repair Yard and the U. S. Naval Hospital, the biggest in Guiuan during the War of Liberation. Brought to this hospital were the survivors of the torpedoed ship Indianapolis after it brought the atomic bomb to Tinian in the Marianas Islands, from where it was brought to Hiroshima by the Enola Gay. Behind Manicani is the Leyte Gulf where the War of Liberation was fought. It was from Guiuan that the naval side of the war was stage managed. (Photo courtesy of Gary Grimme) Fleet Hospital 114 (left, middle picture) was constructed by the Seabees Construction Battalion of whom Tom Billis, (center picture) coming out of the Security Office which was also the brig and armory, was a member. Mr. Billis added that his office was directly behind the sign where I could watch the Main Gate Checkpoint. (Photographs courtesy of Tom Billis, West Valley, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.) (Center, right) The Marine Jumper that brought some of the White Russian refugees from Tubabao to Australia. At the bottom is the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which dropped anchor near Sulangan, from where planes and helicopters flew and landed at the Guiuan Airport during the relief operations that came in the wake of Typhoon Yolanda. (Photo archive)
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 18:05:27 +0000
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