1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
others from the squadron established a field hospital
in the lobby of the Marmont Hotel. Some
squadron members gathered children together
and tried to soothe their fears, while many wives
teetered on the edge of hysteria, having had virtually
no rest during the previous 48 hours. Work
crews were organized to shovel accumulated ash
from the roof to keep the building from collapsing.
Despite their best efforts, the fourth floor collapsed
in the early hours of 16 June. Kay and
several others risked their lives going door to door
in dark hallways to get everyone out.* Once free
of the hotel structure, the dependents walked
down ash-filled streets toward the nearby Sea
Breeze Hotel, becoming drenched in wet, gritty
ash in the process. As morning approached there
were 200 353d SOW dependents stranded at the
Sea Breeze Hotel. They had spent most of the
night in the hotel lobby or outside in the ash and
rain. Dawn brought sunlight again, and everyone’s
spirits rose with the feeling that the worst
was over. Eventually, several buses made their
way through the heavy ash, picked up the dependents,
and transported them to base shelters.
Most of the 1st SOS dependents were moved to
the jet engine shop and were issued cots and
MREs. Although living conditions were austere,
life there improved over the next several days. 18
By 16 June the total evacuation of Clark AB
had been completed without a single loss of any
353d SOW personnel. The challenge of finding
sufficient food and water for those evacuated to
Subic Bay Naval Base became top priority. There
was neither water nor electricity, no telephones,
and only a limited stock of food. The only solution
to the developing crisis was a mass evacuation
from the Philippines. Over the next several days,
the ordeal of processing dependents for return to
the United States was undertaken. 19 The evacu -
ation began with more than 3,000 Air Force and
Navy dependents boarding the aircraft carriers
USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Midway. The
carrier support ships were also filled with evacuees.
Their destination was a temporary airhead
established at Mactan AB, which was located 360
miles south of Subic Bay. From Mactan AB the
dependents boarded MAC aircraft for their trip to
Guam and then on to the West Coast of the
United States. By 18 June almost all 353d SOW
dependents and nonessential personnel had departed
Subic Bay. 20 Some 800 353d SOW military
personnel remained behind in the Philippines for
clean-up operations.
__________
*Sergeant Kay was awarded the Airmen’s Medal for his heroic actions.
On 17 June Stankovich’s stay-behind team returned
to Clark AB to establish command and control
and to make an initial assessment of damage to
353d SOW facilities. Mount Pinatubo erupted
throughout the day, but PVO had re-established
seismological monitoring devices on the mountain
and had determined that the major eruption on
15 June was, indeed, the big one. There was little
danger of renewed pyroclastic flow, so the team
remained at Clark AB during the eruptions. 21
On 21 June Hess led a team back to Clark AB
to make a more in-depth assessment of 353d SOW
facilities. Mallon was part of Hess’s team, and he
focused on the 1st SOS squadron operations
building to salvage important records and unit
heraldry. The facility had been completed only
nine months earlier, but it was almost totally destroyed.
Thousands of gallons of water had leaked
through the roof, and the interior of the building
was flooded. New computers were water-soaked,
and complete libraries of technical publications
were ruined. Clark AB was a barren wasteland
covered under layers of volcanic ash. 22
Between 22 and 24 June, water and electricity
were periodically restored to some areas of Clark
AB, and food service was established at one of the
base chow halls. Back at Subic Bay an assault strip
5,000-feet long was cleared by Navy Seabees to accommodate
C-130 aircraft. Hess forward deployed
Stankovich to Kadena AB as the senior 353d
SOW officer. At Kadena AB a temporary beddown
location for the wing was established, thanks to
the hard work of Colonel Stankovich and Colonel
Maher, the 17th SOS commander. Both had
worked closely with the 313th Air Division commander,
General Hurd, to make the beddown
happen. The Combat Talons and the HC-130s
were colocated on the west ramp of the sprawling
military complex. The four MH-53J helicopters
were still hangared at Subic Bay, but Hess began
coordination to have them moved to Okinawa. By
the end of June, three of the four Pave Lows had
arrived in Okinawa by way of the USS Midway.
The fourth helicopter was flown there on 2 July
by way of C-5 aircraft. Space was not readily
available at Kadena AB for the large helicopters,
but Stankovich was able to negotiate temporary
beddown of the helicopters at Futenma Marine
Corps Air Station (MCAS), which was located five
miles from Kadena AB. 23
Conditions at Clark AB continued to improve
as long-distance telephone service and limited
mail service were re-established. Although austere,
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