As a young 22 year old, food and drink were important parts of existence and enjoying one’s self after a hard day’s or night’s work. In general I believe we were fed well at Wallace Air Station during my tour of duty in 1969-1970. When Reed Ledwig and I arrived at Wallace, we were put on separate rations and this allowed us to choose between the chow hall and other food venues. It seems like we ate most meals at the dining hall and supplemented our rations at the WASCOM and from time to time downtown or in Baguio.

MSgt Bill Smalls ran the dining hall and he did a heck of a job. We could order omelets or fill our plates from already prepared breakfast foods. Lunch and dinner menus varied and were also good. Our friend Sgt. Rene Rodriguez did a whale of a job going in early in the morning to bake breads and desserts. The Filipino cooks and servers were fantastic. Two events come to mind when thinking about the dining hall. First, we had steak regularly and they were cooked to order. For some reason I remember steak once a month and I recall someone cooking the steaks on a grill out back of the facility. Also, on one occasion MSgt Smalls traded food for lobsters. We actually got a whole lobster meal for 55 cents!

When not eating at the Dining Hall, my second meal source was the WASCOM where I often ordered a chef salad for 35 cents or a hamburger or BLT. Food was good at the WASCOM and with a few San Miguel beers to wash it down it was GREAT! As I have stated in earlier blogs, there were special shows on paydays that combined food, drinks, and the show. Certainly there were plenty of time for happy hour and there was a regular menu from which to order sandwiches and other food items. After 40 years my memory is a little fuzzy on all the specific foods we could order at the WASCOM. Can anyone fill in my memory void? What was your favorite WASCOM meal? Do you remember what it cost when you were there?

Drinking was also a HUGE activity. I recall everyone getting upset when San Miguel was raised to 15 cents a bottle. Wow! The club would often offer 16 ounce Miller beers at 10 cents each, so for 50 cents you could consume 80 ounces of beer! During my last trip to the Philippines we were lucky to buy a San Miguel for a buck! Mixed drinks sold for around 25 cents during my Wallace tour and one could get a double for 35 cents and a triple for 45 cents. Wonder if the Air Force ever tied all the Article 15s and other social problems to cheap booze in the clubs? The WASCOM offered a special “Sick Call” on Sunday morning where bloody mary drinks were served for 10 cents (in 1970)! One of our friends, who weighed 350 pounds (before the AF forced overweight people out) consumed 15 bloody marys one Sunday morning and then sat down in the floor and started to cry—not a pretty sight! Of course many a nights Wallace GIs got primed at the WASCOM in preparation for a foray into Poro Point. One could eat and drink at the WASCOM and then get a group up to hit the Harbor Lights for several “night caps”!

At the Harbor Lights my favorite snacks were the hard-boiled eggs that cost a peso and fried rice that cost 2 pesos in 1969-70. I thought the “Ajinimoto” seasoning brought the food to life until I learned years later that it was pure MSG! We also purchased chicken or pork on a stick that was cooked on charcoal along the street. For some reason our buying the meat on the stick usually occurred after consuming a number of San Miguels that cost the peso equivalent of 25 cents! Did anyone ever buy street food when they were sober? There was also a restaurant that our group ate at several times that was located on the hill to the right of the national highway as you entered San Fernando and we went to the beach resorts like the Nalinac, Cresa Ola, and Bali Hai for food and drinks.

We also ate at the 19th Tee at John Hay where you could sit on the veranda and watch people try to play golf on the hilly golf course. One day when we drove into John Hay we noticed a number of Philippine soldiers with rifles in the bushes. Upon arrival at the 19th Tee, rumor had it that President Marcos was playing the course. About 15 minutes later we could see a large contingent of people on the 18th tee and Marcos hit two golf balls. As he walked toward the green, it was apparent that the man beside him had a drawn revolver under this jacket. After sinking his last shot, many people on the veranda applauded and Marcos disappeared into the dressing area. I looked at to the road and there sat three identical black, 1969 Ford Galaxies. Marcos came out of the dressing room and picked which of the three cars he would ride. As the caravan drove off we noticed a helicopter circling overhead. Pretty tight security for 1970!

Downtown Baguio also offered some good restaurants. My friend Lonnie Walker use to like to eat at a steak restaurant at the bottom of Session Road (Baguio’s main street that went up hill and took you to John Hay). Lonnie and I stopped several times and ordered an Australian steak, cooked in butter, on a sizzling hot plate for about $3.75. Today there are restaurants all over Baguio, at hotels, on Session Road that are quite good. There is a super bar named Red Lion, that is owned by a Fil-Am named Tony, currently offers special meals that include steaks for $6-10.

I am sure that many Wallace vets were invited to weddings and christenings and were exposed to Philippine foods like pancit behon (small noodles), lumpia, calf tongues, sea shells, dog (you may have been told it was chicken!), chicken adobo, etc. Filipinos also enjoy garlic rice, although plain white rice is normally served as a filler. Lastly, did you eat a balut (a fertilized duck egg that contains the embryo)?

Did anyone ever try Tanduay Rum? For a quick high and terrible headache the next morning you could buy Tanduay for about $.50—you still can buy the stuff for about the same price! Several times we would take a shooter of rum and then chase it with beer. This was not a smart move on our part, but as I said at 22, life looks differently. I recall several mornings of going to work thinking I would die (perhaps even hoping?). Around 9 a.m. I would take a break to go to the WASCOM and sip on a lemon lime soft drink in an effort to rehydrate myself. After a few episodes, I appear to have learned this was not a fun thing to put myself through. I also consumed a number of Philippine Coca-Colas® along with lemon lime and orange soft drinks. One of my favorite local drinks is calamunsi juice. The calamunsi is about the size of a cherry tomato but looks and tastes like a lime. I really enjoy calamunsi juice, cold during the hot season and hot during the cold nights in Baguio.

Finally, many Filipinos make their own moonshine called “tuba” (coconut wine). I tried a few sips of tuba and in the mountains a cousin called “basi” (sugarcane wine). Both are strong and I have no doubt that over consumption leaves one with a headache. If anyone has more information on tuba or any other drink that I did not experience, please add your comments below.

That’s it for this blog. My goal is to recall our time at Wallace. Help others recall our good and less than good times by sharing your experiences. Where did you eat or drink? Why did you go there—what made it fun? Have you thought about Philippine food and drink since you returned to “the world”? Thanks for listening and feel free to chime in below.

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Posted 3/20/09

Food poisoning at the Outdoor WASCOM 1967

Those that were there duing this time in history probably will remember the outdoor WASCOM, will also remember those lovely evenings at the cliffside area. We used this area while the WASCOM building was being renovated. One saturday evening I was introduced to a federal judge by the name of Arriaga. He just happend to have went to law school in my home state of Illinois. He told me that the folks back in Illinois treated him very special and he wanted to be sure I was given the same treatment while I was in the Philippines. "If you have any problems while here just come see me". Oh boy I thought, I had a federal judge on my side, somehow I felt more secure after that meeting.

The following week I spoke with the judge and he told me the fried chicken at the WASCOM made him sick. I apologized to the judge and told him I would pass that info on to the club manager TSGT Johnson. That same evening I became sick after eating my usual chicken salad sandwich. Little did I know the cooks at the WASCOM kitchen were not rotating the chicken meat. I had just eaten a chicken salad sandwhich that had rotten chicken in it. That's right rotten! But the 3-4 bourbon drinks I had prior to eating the tainted sandwich saved me from intestinal disaster.

The club manager and my self loaded up all the chicken he had in his kitched and drove out next to San Fernando bay and tossed it into the water. No sir, the food wasn't always great at the WASCOM!!!

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Posted 3 / 24 / 09

Wallace, Home of the Cast Iron Stomach

by Thomas Jacobson

Maybe this article should have been titled, When in Rome. I tried some unusual dishes while at Wallace. So here they are, in no particular order.

The Wallace Air Station dining hall. Actually, the food was great. If I remember right, Thursday was steak day. Everyone got a steak at the noon meal. Of course this depended on the shipments of food from Clark. During the terrible monsoon season of 1972, shipments were held up for some time, and we were getting pretty low on rations. Nobody starved, of course, but I recall that things like fresh vegetables, eggs, and milk were missing from the menu for a few weeks. One of the things I enjoyed the most were egg sandwiches, which we cops fixed for ourselves after the midnight shift. We'd pile napkins with bread and fried eggs, then take them across the street to watch the midnight movie. We had beer to go long with the sandwiches, compliments of the beer machine in the dorm. One time we had to guard a prisoner who was AWOL from Clark. I happened to know him, and since he was under guard, he got treated to egg sandwiches, beer and a movie with the rest of us. He was pretty unhappy when the Clark SPs came for him. If he had been allowed to stay with us, I doubt he would have ever gone AWOL again. Anyway, there was...

Goat gut stew. I had this delicacy over at the motor pool. Some Filipino employees had brought one of their favorite dishes, goat innards chopped into pieces and cooked. It looked a little like macaroni and cheese, but the noodles were intestines, not pasta. It wasn't bad, but not something to write home about. Sometimes we rounded up our own grub, such as...

Octopus. Jim Oliver, Don Daniel and I went snorkeling in the bay, just off the drone launch area. One of them speared a small octopus. We were living off base at the time and decided to live off the land. Having tried octopus and finding it was tough as boot leather, we put our trusty police nightsticks to work. We whaled that crap out of that optopus, then fried it up with some onions and tomatoes. It tasted all right, but was still on the tough side. I remember chewing till my jaws got tired. Those little suckers that ran down the tentacles were the hardest the chew. I have to lump squid in with octopus. I only had it from a can in the Harbor Lights, but it wasn't good. It was in a liquid that was jet black (the ink, I guess) so you couldn't really see it. It was tougher than octopus and had a much stronger flavor. So it was a pleasure to try something more palatable, like...

Dog meat. I was off base, visiting my friend Don Ready, when I noticed a group of Filipinos cooking something over an open fire. They saw me and invited me to join them in a hearty meal of Lassie. Actually, it was some mutt that probably hadn't come close to saving Timmy or anyone else. The carcass was roasting over the fire and they were pulling pieces off and offering me some. I was happy to share in the bounty, being hungry after all the San Miguel I had been drinking. They were dipping the pieces of meat in a brownish sauce they said said was made from the dog's blood. It tasted amazingly like Heinz 57, which may be how that famous sauce gets its name. Thank you, Theresa Heinz. As the meat got consumed, one of the men took the dog's head, which was near the fire, and split the skull with a bolo knife. He cracked it open and showed me how to dip the meat into the exposed brain, adding a new dimension to this delicacy. It was great! It tasted like Velveeta cheese. I ate till I was stuffed, then thanked my providers and headed back to base. The next day I felt fine, but wasn't hungry at all. One of the federal guards said this was normal, that a meal of dog was very filling and would hold a person for a couple days. Since there are diets such as Atkins, South Beach, Jenny Craig, etc., I would think the dog meat diet would be worth a look. Lest any reader think I was a person who would eat anything, there was one thing popular to the natives that I drew the line at, namely...

Balut. Anyone who has been to the Philippines knows that balut is a duck egg, with a nearly developed embryo eaten raw out of the shell. It is said that it is slightly crunchy, from the little baby duck bones. I never tried it, but my friend Jim Oliver admitted to eating one, after which he threw up on the sidewalk.

THE DRINKS

For a few Americans who preferred to keep their drinks on the American plan, the WASCOM served a full bar menu of American beer, wine, and hard liquor. Those of us who were willing to try the local stuff (which meant most of us) could try...

San Miguel beer. How to describe it? This was the universal drink of choice in the P.I. It was definitely beer, though with a flavor unlike any other I have tried. It was said to contain formaldahyde, and this may be true. As far as I know, it was the only beer produced in the P.I. But there were a couple different types. I remember the locals telling us, "Don't drink the four-line San Miguel!" It came in dark brown bottles with white lettering. On the back was printed some things I don't remember, but some bottles had three lines of print, others four. It was said that "four-line" beer was Manila beer, which was bad. If you got a bottle of San miguel in a bar and saw four lines of print, you exchanged it for three line beer. I can attest that more than a few four-liners I came across had things like cigarette butts and other objects floating around. For a stronger drink there was...

Rice wine. I drank very little of this wicked stuff. For several months I had a bottle of it in my dorm room, though I had tasted it and had no intention of drinking it. So one night I persuaded a fellow SP, Ken Spaulding, that it was Johnny Walker scotch. Ken wasn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. He drank most of the bottle and ended up praying to the porcelain god in the latrine. Sorry, Ken. For the ever more adventurous, there was...

Tanduay rum. This wasn't the fine, imported stuff. The rum I remember could be purchased for around $2.00 a bottle and would leave you with a hangover so bad, you would be hoping to be struck by lightning to ease the misery. I only remember two incidents where I consumed Tanduay rum, both at Clark. By the time I got to Wallace, I had learned my lesson.

There were memorable occasions, such as the time I rode my motorcycle up to Baguio and stopped along the way. I was halfway up the mountain when an American stopped by in his car. He had recognised me as a fellow GI and, being an officer and true gentleman, opened up a cooler and handed me an ice-cold Coors. That was a treat. Another time I was working the midnight shift when some British folks came by the main gate. They were off a ship that had just docked and wanted to watch our midnight movie. I let them do this and they were so pleased with the hospitality they invited me to the ship the next evening. I rode my cycle onto the dock and was escorted up the gangway to a plush facility run by some very friendly folks, who provided a never-ending supply of Tennants beer (from Scotland). White-coated waiters kept bringing beer and sandwiches all night, and it was great!