Wheels 4 Warriors USA – Helping Veterans Two Wheels At A Time

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A1C Doug Towsley - I had a blast living there. All parents would let 14 year olds go to bars. lol Every friday night I had a roll of 600 pesos and beer cost 2 pesos! My father liked to explore and I was his sidekick. He was such a cool father.


THE SMALL ISLAND IN SULU SEA
I recall at the age of ten going on a cruise and visiting several islands and cities in the Philippines with my father. We went to Zamboanga, Mindanao, Cebu City, and Palawan. I thought the culture of Mindanao was interesting because it is significantly inhabited by Muslims. The Moros who are Muslims in Mindanao are fighting for independence and autonomy now. For much of the history of the Philippines the Moros lived in isolation and were free to live in a culture they deemed appropriate to them, but the government and other Filipinos have encroached into their lands and culture. The Moros also face poverty due to the lack of economic developments. The impetus for insurgencies are often based on legitimate grievances. As a retired Army Officer I was afforded a military history education to include exposure to many paradigms of war. One paradigm is revolutions are often started by ideologies. This explains our Revolutionary War. The American ideology was freedom from England for legitimate reasons.

My father and I visited a penal colony in Mindanao where captured Moro insurgents were detained. A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners to separate them from the general population. It looked like a bunch of skinny men sitting or standing around in a large barren yard. The next leg of our trip was traveling to Cebu City. It is very developed, clean, and had a unique flair. I was very impressed with the city.

We made our way to Palawan Island off the Southwest coast off the Philippines. Palawan is 260 miles long and is 24 miles wide. Palawan is home to several indigenous groups. However, there is an unfathomable dark side to the history of the island. In WWII, the Japanese Army occupied Palawan. Near the end of the war at Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan, the Japanese, under the command of General Tomoyuki Yamashita, forced 150 Allied prisoners of war into ditches and covered them with gasoline and set them on fire. Those who tried to escape were shot. After the war General Yamashita was tried and convicted of war crimes and hanged. It was said there existed no evidence the General ordered savage acts, but he bore the responsibility of his Army’s conduct as the commander. When Japan formally surrendered many American Soldiers and Marines refused to allow Japanese Soldiers to surrender alive due to the atrocities they carried out in the war. Tojo’s military was immeasurably barbaric, and Japan reaped what it sowed. This facet of war made it easier for US military planners to firebomb Japanese cities to include dropping the atomic bombs. Both types of bombings were infinitely horrific.

From Palawan we rode a sea faring dugout canoe for an hour. The sun was bright and hot. The salty air splashed from the bow of the canoe as we skimmed over small waves. The splashes from the cool water was a welcome respite to the heat and left salt on our skin when the sea water evaporated. I was lost in time. We passed by small islands with pink, white, and black beaches surrounded by the bluest clear water in the world. I marveled how nature could design a process to create those magnificent colored beaches. Our destination was a small tropical island with pure white sand that reflected into our eyes. It was unprotected by the brilliant sun and covered with a bevy of coconut trees like a random plantation in the sea. The warm winds made the palm fronds flutter gently. It was pristine, it was a beautiful speck in the Sulu Sea. We were alone. The island portrayed infinite and timeless beauty. I am sure if we went back a few hundred thousand years the island would be no different.

We snorkeled. The island was surrounded by a kaleidoscope of bright tropical fish meandering in water that was clear as air. They swam randomly around over, under, and around us. Tabletop coral welcomed us. They looked like large mushrooms jutting from the sea floor and grew to a good six feet high. I had the opportunity to see a large bed of giant clams. The clams were a couple feet wide. They were open, revealing purple flesh in the middle with a bright white outer shells. The island had a deep and large sunken hole several meters from the beach. Perhaps it was a 100 feet deep. It was dark and deep enough to hide a small sunken ship at the bottom and sharks swam lazily overhead of the ship. I floated above the deep dark hole and felt uncomfortable suspended in water while I looked down at the numerous sharks swimming below me. I assumed perhaps the ship was sunk in WWII? What did I know? If it were not for the ship, I could easily think no human had laid eyes the island. I will always remember the exploration of the small island the with crystal clarity with my father. It is stored in my long term memory.

The island looked liked this.

A1C Doug Towsley - I don't have problems with friends because nobody likes me! hahahaha

I use to sneak out every night. I pushed my motorcycle and car down the street then start them up. I don't think many teens could do what I did. I partied every night. Got good grades. Played football, soccer, and wrestled. If I could do it again I would not have snuck out so often because I was always tired. I think I was not on the same wavelength as many people because I was so damn tired.

A1C Doug Towsley - I never inhaled hahahaha I will try to read the story tomorrow.

A1C Doug Towsley - Excellent story. I was always professional on the radio due to the possibility of a hot mic.

I will talk about my scandalous AIT at Ft Eustis, VA. I just had a lot of fun. I put in my OCS packet and did PT on my own as well to increase my PT score for the OCS board. I was very serious, but I had a lot of fun. We were prior service so we had no Drill Sergeants. Often several of us would buy a lot of beer and we would drink near the James River. Invariably we had nice piles of empty beer cans near our picnic tables as the night progressed.

Some of the female soldiers liked me and I liked them. I was going to bang one female near the James river, but as we started to take our clothes off we were attacked by hundreds of insects. They buzzed us loudly, attacked, and bit us. It was like a horror movie and we ran to my truck to seek relief from those crazy insects. It was so traumatic that I still remember today vividly.

A cute blonde lesbian soldiers hatched a plan. She wanted me to act like her boyfriend so the army would not suspect she was a lesbian. Her gorgeous girlfriend would come to the barracks and kiss me to continue the charade. The guys were green with envy and ask how I attracted all the chicks. I just smiled. lol

One Sunday she and I went to Myrtle Beach to visit her girlfriend at her apartment. We drank some tequila. As the night progressed and became late I got on the bottom of the bunkbed to try to sleep. Well these two hot lesbians started making out on the top bunk bed. They did 69 for a very long time. It was every man's dream come true but they were straight lesbians. Whatever that means. Needless to say I got no sleep as I heard all the slurping, moaning, and orgasms.

My friend drove me to the base because I had class that day. I was late. The instructor asked me why I was late and I told him the story about the night. He was impressed. He told me to go take a shower because I smelled like tequila. I was fortunate that I had a great track record before that day. I guess that is old army.