US Naval Base Subic Bay Patch

Subic Bay was a navy yard before it was ever an American one: Spain authorized the Arsenal de Olongapo in 1885, and U.S. Marines raised the Stars and Stripes over the yard on December 10, 1899. An executive order set aside the Subic Bay Naval Reservation in 1901. The deep, sheltered harbor on the west coast of Luzon became the Navy's home in the Western Pacific for most of the century that followed. Ships came in for repair, fuel, ammunition and stores, and their crews came ashore in Olongapo. When the flag came down for the last time on November 24, 1992, it closed out nearly 93 years of U.S. Navy presence on the bay.

War reached the base in December 1941, when Americans burned the station ahead of the Japanese advance, and the floating dry dock Dewey, which had served at Subic for some 35 years, was scuttled in April 1942. Japanese forces held the bay until U.S. troops landed at San Antonio, Zambales, on January 29, 1945, and the station was reactivated. During the Vietnam War, Subic was the Seventh Fleet's forward repair and replenishment base. Monthly ship visits climbed from 98 in 1964 to 215 by 1967, and in October 1968 a record 47 ships were in port at once. Naval Air Station Cubi Point, begun during the Korean War, worked the carrier aircraft across the bay, and after Clark Air Base closed, Subic was the largest U.S. military installation overseas.

This is a 4-inch round patch with a cut edge, framed by a twisted gold rope border. U.S. NAVAL BASE arches across the top in dark navy letters and SUBIC BAY runs along the bottom, on a light blue field with a gold star at each side. In the center, the flag of the Philippines and the Stars and Stripes cross on their staffs, tied together with a gold cord. The Philippine flag carries its gold sun and three small stars, which stand for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. A ring of gold chain circles the two flags, two nations side by side for the life of the base.

For a sailor in the Seventh Fleet, pulling into Subic meant the ship was going to get fixed, restocked and turned around, and the crew was going to get a few days ashore. Filipino shipyard workers at the Ship Repair Facility kept ships on the line through the Vietnam years and long after. Mount Pinatubo erupted about 20 miles away on June 15, 1991, burying the base in ash, and dependents were evacuated. The Philippine Senate declined to ratify a new treaty that September, and the Navy departed the following year. For a generation of Seventh Fleet sailors, Subic was the repair yard and liberty port they knew best in the Western Pacific.

Put it in a shadow box with a WestPac cruise book and the ship's patch from that deployment, or wear it on the vest you take to ship reunions. It also makes a good gift for a shipmate who spent time on the bay. The patch has an iron-on backing and can be sewn on as well. The base closed in 1992, and the name still means something to everyone who pulled in there.