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(click to enlarge)
The first
order of business was to make contact with President Ramos to set up a
meeting of our group with him. This turned out to be a difficult task. Can
you imagine trying to make personal contact with President Bill Clinton?
There are so many layers of bureaucracies surrounding high public officials,
it is a miracle when someone breaks through and makes contact.
I was lucky.
General Jones graduated from West Point in the class of 1935. President
Ramos was an oddity: although a Philippine citizen, he graduated from West
Point in 1950. That meant that Jones and Ramos were both "ring knockers" as
we called them. All West Point graduates wear heavy class rings which make
them members of an elite group.
In 1960
Captain Ramos and three other Philippine officers attended the Special
Warfare and Airborne schools at Fort Brag, North Carolina. General Jones was
the Commanding Officer. Among the instructors was one I knew very well:
Colonel Robert "Cracker" Atkins. A classmate of Ramos at West Point,
Laurence Jackley attended the same Special Warfare class. Jackley was well
known to Jones and Atkins. Now a retired Colonel, Jackley maintained a close
relationship with Ramos and another Filipino officer who had attended the
class, now retired Major General Joe Magno. Cracker Atkins, who traveled
with us, introduced me to Jackley. Colonel Jackley was able to make contact
with both President Ramos and General Magno and pave the way for us. The
upshot was that President Ramos appointed General Magno to be the contact
between him and me. We were in! The only potential problem could be affairs
of State which would make it impossible for him to take the time to meet
with us.
Just the day
before we left the States for the Philippines, General Magno informed me by
fax that we had a date to meet the President in the Malacaņan Palace on our
second night in the Philippines or February 13th. This turned out
to be quite an affair.
The Malacaņan Palace is actually a group
of buildings both old and new which house the head of Government as does
the White House in the United States. The old building is the one in which
the Marcos family lived. Now it is a museum through which we were guided.
To pass time until President Ramos could see us, General Magno lined up a
group of present and retired Generals of the Airborne and Special Forces
branches of the Philippine Army. Each was given a few minutes to speak.
 President
Ramos entered the room and spent, perhaps, an hour with us in an informal
atmosphere. He seemed relaxed and to be having a good time. I could hardly
believe my ears when he proceeded to tell an old airborne clinker I think I
first heard when I was in parachute training in 1941:-
"Parachute
jumping is very safe: you have a main and a reserve. You jump and your
main opens to let you down softly. If the main fails to work you pull your
rip cord and the reserve will open to let you down softly. If the main and
the reserve do not open, take them back to the supply sergeant and get new
ones."
During our
meeting with him the president spent a bit of time getting himself up to
date on plans for the 50th Anniversary commemoration of our jump
on Corregidor on February 16th. These had just been drafted and
were still in the process of being finalized.
In order to
save time the President made a ceremonial presentation of the Philippine
Liberation Medal to two of our people. Medals for all others were given to
me for presentation to them. The President ended by inviting all the group
for a "photo opportunity". So ended the first of the HIGH POINTS.
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