From 2006 - 2008 I worked in Heidelberg, Germany and one of my civilian supervisors was a Japanese-American guy who had spent much of his career in the Pacific theater. He had come to Germany from a small base in Japan called Camp Zama. We used to spend a lot of time chatting about Asia in general and Camp Zama in particular. The way he described Camp Zama sort of rekindled my interest in eventually making the jump to the Pacific theater at some point. He said he'd probably be going back to Zama after his time in Germany was done and so I told him to keep me in mind should any positions come open that I might be a match for. He did indeed go back to Zama and I kept in touch him but it never produced any tangible opportunities for me. Trying to find a position in Asia seemed utterly futile and I was very happy living in Europe anyway so it wasn't a major deal at the time. Then something out of the ordinary happened; while having coffee with my buddy Phil one morning, a couple of guys in maroon berets walked in and one of them just happened to be a friend of his. We went over so he could say hi and it turned out that the other guy he was with was the new commanding general of the unit I'd worked for down in Vicenza, Italy. He was very personable so we made small talk while Phil caught up with his friend. I mentioned that I worked in Vicenza before coming to Heidelberg, he asked if I liked it and I said I do but that I would love to go back to Italy if I ever had the chance. His eyes widened and he said "Oh really? Because you know we have an opening coming up later this year..." I told him in no uncertain terms that I would take it in a heartbeat. And so it was that after two wonderfully memorable years in Heidelberg, we relocated
back to Vicenza where I'd left my heart only a couple years earlier. We were so incredibly happy to be back in Italy that I planned on staying as long as I possibly could. There is a senseless, idiotic rule for government civilians working overseas called the "5 Year Rule" and it basically states that civilians are supposed to be overseas for a maximum of 5 years, then they are supposed to go back to the US for at least 2 years before they can go back overseas. Your unit can give you an extension but over the past 10 years or so, extensions are becoming rarer by the day. I arrived in Europe in 1998 but I didn't become a DoD civilian until 2006 so I figured that I'd get at least 3 years in Vicenza before I hit my 5 year mark in 2011. I ended up getting lucky and getting a two year extension before the government told me that I'd been overseas too long and denied my next extension request in 2013 and finally forced us back to the US in 2014.
My second go round in Vicenza lasted 6 years (2008-2014) and so many life changing things happened in those 6 years that it's hard to believe and even harder to make sense of sometimes. The first was my maiden trip to the Philippines in 2010. Virginia and I had been married almost 8 years by the time I made my initial foray into the mysterious land of the Philippines which seems strange looking back but it always seemed like something came up or was going on that prevented me from going - an exercise, a deployment, the kids' school...always something. When I finally made it there, I instantly felt remorse at never making more of an effort before. Those 3 weeks were probably the most enjoyable vacation I've ever had. I discovered things that I'd long ago lost in Europe, not the least of which was a sense of newness, adventure and "exotic-ness", if there is such a word. This was a place and a culture that was all brand new to me and I relished in experiencing all of it (well, most of it anyway - I wasn't crazy about the lack of indoor plumbing...).
My first trip to the Philippines..."I could get used to this".
Even beyond the excitement and adventure of discovering and exploring a new place, I had - and will always have - a certain connection to the Philippines since my wife is from there, her whole family lives there and my kids, though American in almost every way, are half Filipino. I completely fell in love with the Philippines on that first trip, so much so that we even ended up buying a small beach house on Lingayen Gulf close to Virginia's family. It being the Philippines, the place wasn't anything fancy but was extremely cheap and I had plans of visiting regularly after that first trip so when we had a chance to get it, I jumped at it. We ended up going back every summer for the next few years and those trips were just so enjoyable and life changing for me. I've never felt more relaxed and at peace than during those vacations at our beach house. Virginia's family are amazing people and I love being around them, eating and drinking, doing karaoke, playing on the beach and such. At night I would sit outside and wonder at the breathtaking sunsets. I was living in Italy, one of THEE most beautiful countries in the world but whenever we went on vacation to our beach house, all I could think of was that I never wanted to leave.
Sunset from the front of the beach house; very few things I've seen in my life match the beauty.
During my second trip to the Philippines, I discovered something that has become somewhat of an obsession with me ever since; Corregidor. Corregidor, for those who weren't aware, is a small, tadpole shaped island at the opening of Manila Bay. It was also the scene of perhaps the most important and pivotal battles of the Pacific theater in WW2. There are few better examples of the courage, bravery and intestinal fortitude of the American soldier than what occurred on Corregidor in the course of WW2. The main heroes of Corregidor were the 2-503 Airborne - one of the very units that is currently stationed at the base I work at in Vicenza, Italy - and so I felt an instant connection to the place. I did a day tour on my second Philippines trip and was so enamored of the place that I left wanting much more. When I got back to Italy I devoured everything I could find about Corregidor online and at the local library. On every subsequent trip to the PI, I have always done the Corregidor tour so as to explore more of the island. Though it was nothing more than a pipe dream, I have even found myself daydreaming of being involved with the island in some official capacity someday, such as preservation, publicity, etc. as Corregidor was possibly the entire key to the US victory over Japan in the Pacific theater; it bothers me to no end that the average American knows all about Normandy and D-Day but has never heard of Corregidor. But I digress...
(NOTE: If you would like to read the daily journal I kept on my first ever trip to the Philippines, you can start with Day 1 HERE)
In the years between 2010 and 2014, my mind would often wander back to the thought of someday finding a job at a base somewhere in the Pacific - Korea and Japan being pretty much the only options - so I could be closer to the beach house and to Corregidor. But we loved living in Italy so it remained nothing more than a thought I occasionally entertained in the back of my mind. We were living 'la Dolce Vita' in Italy, a place that felt more like home than anywhere else I've ever lived. I could not possibly think of leaving.
Unfortunately, some nameless, faceless lowlife scumbag beancounters in the US government had other ideas.
Stay tuned for Part III...
My first trip to the Philippines..."I could get used to this".
Even beyond the excitement and adventure of discovering and exploring a new place, I had - and will always have - a certain connection to the Philippines since my wife is from there, her whole family lives there and my kids, though American in almost every way, are half Filipino. I completely fell in love with the Philippines on that first trip, so much so that we even ended up buying a small beach house on Lingayen Gulf close to Virginia's family. It being the Philippines, the place wasn't anything fancy but was extremely cheap and I had plans of visiting regularly after that first trip so when we had a chance to get it, I jumped at it. We ended up going back every summer for the next few years and those trips were just so enjoyable and life changing for me. I've never felt more relaxed and at peace than during those vacations at our beach house. Virginia's family are amazing people and I love being around them, eating and drinking, doing karaoke, playing on the beach and such. At night I would sit outside and wonder at the breathtaking sunsets. I was living in Italy, one of THEE most beautiful countries in the world but whenever we went on vacation to our beach house, all I could think of was that I never wanted to leave.
Sunset from the front of the beach house; very few things I've seen in my life match the beauty.
During my second trip to the Philippines, I discovered something that has become somewhat of an obsession with me ever since; Corregidor. Corregidor, for those who weren't aware, is a small, tadpole shaped island at the opening of Manila Bay. It was also the scene of perhaps the most important and pivotal battles of the Pacific theater in WW2. There are few better examples of the courage, bravery and intestinal fortitude of the American soldier than what occurred on Corregidor in the course of WW2. The main heroes of Corregidor were the 2-503 Airborne - one of the very units that is currently stationed at the base I work at in Vicenza, Italy - and so I felt an instant connection to the place. I did a day tour on my second Philippines trip and was so enamored of the place that I left wanting much more. When I got back to Italy I devoured everything I could find about Corregidor online and at the local library. On every subsequent trip to the PI, I have always done the Corregidor tour so as to explore more of the island. Though it was nothing more than a pipe dream, I have even found myself daydreaming of being involved with the island in some official capacity someday, such as preservation, publicity, etc. as Corregidor was possibly the entire key to the US victory over Japan in the Pacific theater; it bothers me to no end that the average American knows all about Normandy and D-Day but has never heard of Corregidor. But I digress...
(NOTE: If you would like to read the daily journal I kept on my first ever trip to the Philippines, you can start with Day 1 HERE)
In the years between 2010 and 2014, my mind would often wander back to the thought of someday finding a job at a base somewhere in the Pacific - Korea and Japan being pretty much the only options - so I could be closer to the beach house and to Corregidor. But we loved living in Italy so it remained nothing more than a thought I occasionally entertained in the back of my mind. We were living 'la Dolce Vita' in Italy, a place that felt more like home than anywhere else I've ever lived. I could not possibly think of leaving.
Unfortunately, some nameless, faceless lowlife scumbag beancounters in the US government had other ideas.
Stay tuned for Part III...
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