Sunday, January 18, 2015

January 9, 2015 - Senior Couples trip to Corregidor Island

Pictures from our trip to Corregidor Island.  This island is at the mouth of Manila Bay and is in the shape of a tadpole.  It was the place of two battles during WWII.  At the beginning of WWII the Americans and the Philippines occupied the island.  Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the Japanese attacked Corregidor and took possession of the island and also Batan and the Batan Death March began.  Then in 1944 (I think) the Americans came and took back the island.  The ruins and guns associated with these battles are still there.  It was a most interesting and sobering experience to see these sights.  War is terrible.

Pictures taken from the boat as we left Olongapo a motored to the island.

The Coast Guard Station where they train.

Elder and Sister Woodruff and Elder and Sister Lund as we leave from the dock in Olongapo.

Our crew.  We placed our lives in their hands (haha). The water was really choppy.  It was quite a ride.  The ride back was even more scary, but you all know me and water.

The outriggers on the boat was a bamboo pole.

Elder Weber

The island in the distance

It was a cloudy day which was nice because it was cooler.

The dock at the island.

Debris in the water that washes there from Manila.  


The island has a network of tunnels.  In one of the tunnels was a 1000 bed hospital.  During the battle when the Japanese were bombing there were as many as 1500 men in the hospital. You can read on line about the battle. Pictures of the tunnels are next.
This is a diagram of the tunnel system.  We walked down the main tunnel from the end where the yellow dot is to the opposite end.
Elder Weber with Elder and Sister Woodruff at the entrance of the tunnel.


At several of the ancillary tunnels they had dioramas depicting historic events.  They were quite interesting but it was dark and there were a lot of people and I couldn't get close enough to get good pictures.  This is the best one. 





The next pictures are of some of the guns that are still on the island.








This gun was huge. 
Bullet holes in the armor of one of the guns.


The next pictures are of the memorials and some scenery
General Douglas Mc Carthur statue 




Perpetual flame

Looking back at Manila

Plumaria Tree

We saw several monkeys

The Lighthouse on the island


This plant had many different colors on the flower


These pictures are of the bombed out barracks and buildings that are left standing on the island




We finished up our trip at Subic Bay where we had dinner at a Texas Bar-B-Q restaurant.  We had a very enjoyable time together.
Sunset on Subic Bay

At the Texax Bar-B-Q


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