Pilot Calls Marines: Army Mill Around Drums of Gas

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SHUTTLING with various military planes between Awang Airport in Dinaig, Maguindanao and Nichols Air Base (the present Villamor) in Pasay City when I was a kid in the late of 1970’s until the retirement from the air force of my father in 1981, one of the experiences that still embedded in my rich neocortex was when the fire proof flight fatigue suit clad pilot of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport plane that would take off in Pasay to Maguindanao barked to the various branches of services of soldiers spitting and whittling around: “Palapitin ninyo sa akin ang mga Marines diyan! Kayong mga Marines bantayan niyong maigi iyong mga drum na iyan. Puno iyan ng gasolina! Bantayan ninyo ang Army na sisindi ng sigarilyo habang lumilipad ang eroplano natin”.

Writer as a teenager shuttling with various military planes between Awang Airport in Dinaig, Maguindanao and Nichols Air Base (the present Villamor) in Pasay City.  (Illustration by Gemini)

Those dozens of cold rolled steel drums of 100/130 aviation gasoline (a high-octane leaded piston aviation fuel) and the JP-4 (kerosene-based aviation turbine fuel) would be used by the air force for their T-28 “Tora-Tora” Trojan radial-engine planes and UH-1H helicopters that bombed and strafed the Moro rebels hiding at their strongholds and redoubts in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, North Cotabato, and some parts of Lanao.

Why he did not task those members of the Philippine Army, Philippines Constabulary, the Navy, and the Air Force that waited for the giant plane to depart to the war torn Southern Island? He saw that the Marines were more disciplined to faithfully carry the task than their shenanigan prone contemporary in the other branch of services there.

Did you read my blog years ago where I wrote that when my father and I had a sleepover at the air force base in Sasa, Davao City, crew of the Huey combat helicopters would invite me to join them to quaff cases of San Miguel Beer because they purloined containers of gas to be sold to merchants in the city. The JP-4 gas can be used by the masa for their lanterns.

They even bragged to this high school kid that their flattered stout M-60 machine gunner of the chopper was an extra to a flick starred by action stars Dante Varona and Jun Aristorenas.

“Kita mo na ini siyo To’ sa mga sinehan sa M’lang, siya atong isa ka gunner sang Huey, (You’ve seen this guy Toto in the movie houses in M’lang, he was one of the gunners of the Huey)” Airman 2^nd Class Ronnie Nietes, -- a high school delinquent and dropped out in our town but enlisted in the air force because of a kin who was Colonel who interceded without knowing that the nephew used a fake diploma – vaunted to me in Ilonggo.

Those miscreants even smoke weeds. Thanks, susmariosep, to the pilfered helicopter fuel.

This blog was a spur-of-the-moment after I posted my opinion article “Ramrod Straight Marines at Luneta’s 44 Celsius” at my 101 Talk Radio about my awe to the Marines.

“Amazed by the two ramrod straight brown clad uniformed Philippines Marines (last two photos) with their M-14s guarding the monument of the national hero Jose Rizal in Luneta, Manila when I passed by at 10 A.M and 4 P.M yesterday along the stretches of the "dirty" Port Area when I exited the toll gate of the expressway in Balintawak and returned to the same place. What's the big deal for me with the two soldiers whose motto as bequeathed to us by the United States Marines Corps: The Few the Proud the Marines! the two Sergeants, Leathernecks, or the Devil Dogs - probably battle scarred in my island Mindanao fighting the Moro - stood still unmindful of the scorching 44 Celsius Manila sun, sanamagan!,” opening excerpt of the column said.

That blog gained plaudits particularly from two retired three-star and two-star ranked Marines where one of them is a former Commandant.