U.S. Naval Station Subic Bay Philippines Patch - Original Version

In October 1968, Subic Bay had 47 ships in port at once, the most the harbor ever held. Through the Vietnam years, this was where Seventh Fleet ships came off the line to be repaired, refueled and rearmed before heading back out. The Navy's own history calls Subic the fleet's supermarket and service station, and it handled about 60 percent of the Seventh Fleet's servicing and repair work. Behind the piers sat the Ship Repair Facility, the Naval Magazine and Naval Air Station Cubi Point. For thousands of sailors, U.S. Naval Station Subic Bay was the Philippines.

The Seventh Fleet made Subic its home port in May 1949, but the base was already half a century old by then. It began as the Spanish Navy's Arsenal de Olongapo in 1885, and Marines under Capt. John T. Myers took charge of the station in December 1899. The floating dry dock Dewey arrived in July 1906 after a tow from Maryland by way of the Suez Canal, the longest on record at the time. Marines destroyed the facilities and fell back to Corregidor in December 1941, and American troops came ashore unopposed on January 29, 1945. Seabees cut a mountain in half to build the runway at Naval Air Station Cubi Point, commissioned next door in 1956.

The patch is cut to the shape of a shield, 4.5 inches wide by 4.25 inches tall, with a heavy gold rope border stitched all the way around. U.S. NAVAL STATION runs across a white scroll at the top of a deep blue field. In the center stands a white and gold gate with crenellated walls and twin towers, which calls to mind the Spanish Gate, built in 1885 as the entrance to the Arsenal de Olongapo and still standing today. A red band and a second scroll reading SUBIC BAY close out the bottom. This is the original version of the design, and we also carry it on a black field.

For more than four decades, Subic was where Seventh Fleet sailors came back to between the gun line and home. Through the Vietnam War the Ship Repair Facility employed more than 15,000 Filipino workers, and they kept ships moving back out to sea. Mount Pinatubo erupted on June 15, 1991, and nearly a foot of ash, soaked by the rain of Typhoon Yunya, brought down buildings across the base. That September the Philippine Senate voted 12 to 11 against a new treaty, and the Navy closed the station on November 24, 1992. The base is the Subic Bay Freeport Zone today.

Frame it with your cruise book photos, or put it on the vest you wear to Subic and Cubi Point reunions. It also makes a good gift for anyone who made liberty in Olongapo and still talks about it. The patch has an iron-on backing and can be sewn on as well. It keeps a place a lot of sailors still bring up right where they can see it.