My Early Years

By Zack Chavez

I am trying to recollect my childhood days as far back as I can.  I remember being in an air raid shelter somewhere around Manila.  It must have been when the American forces had just started liberating the Philippines from the Japanese before the end of WWII.  Bombs were falling and exploding around us.  My mother wanted me very close to her while she was saying the rosary with other women in the shelter.  I was too young to be scared.  I can’t remember how long we stayed in the shelter.  The next thing I remember was when there was no more bombing and I was playing with other kids in the streets of Manila.  Occasionally, military jeeps would pass by loaded with GI’s and we would attempt to chase them yelling “victory Joe, victory Joe”, our arms raised with the ‘V’ finger sign for victory.  They would toss Hershey’s chocolate bars at us.  It must have been a fun experience because I can still remember it.

Young Zack (1957) - Old Zack (2007)

Fast forward to 1984.  I was a LCDR working in the Loran-C Branch at the Coast Guard EECEN in Wildwood, N.J.  Joe Daly, a GS-13, was one of our engineers.  He had been employed at EECEN for 20 years or so and he was close to retirement.  One Friday afternoon after work, Joe and I were talking shop over a beer at Crest Tavern, a favorite hang out just outside the Center.  After a few beers, our conversation drifted to relating our life experiences.  He was amazed to hear my story on how I joined the Coast Guard from the Philippines and how I became a Coast Guard officer.  Then he told me his story.  Joe was a WWII veteran.  He was in the Army Air Corp and flew bombing missions in Manila.  I told him that while he was dropping bombs at 30,000 feet, I was in an air raid shelter below, and if just one of his bombs had hit us I wouldn’t be at the Crest Tavern having beer with him 40 years later!

After the war we moved to Santol where my parents started a laundry business.  They would pickup dirty laundry from customers near us, wash their clothes, iron them, and deliver them back.  Everything was done by hand. We could not afford a washing machine.  The laundry business was our only source of income. When I was about 12 years old and strong enough, I helped my parents by picking up and delivering laundry.

One of our customers that helped shape my life was Generoso Fernandez and his wife Miling.  They had six children: three girls and three boys.  The boys were about my age.

Mr. Fernandez was a civil engineer.  When I graduated from high school, Mr. Fernandez  encouraged me to take civil engineering in college, which I did.

Mr. Fernandez taught me how to play chess. When I became good enough playing the game I became his regular chess opponent.  I became good friends with his sons Boy, Bert and Sonny.  They would frequently invite me over to play table tennis and basketball in their yard.  They became my favorite playmates in Santol.  By the way, my nickname while I was growing up was “Junior” or sometimes “Jun”.  When we went to visit the PI in 2003, the Fernandez’s, my relatives and other friends still addressed me as “Junior” and I was 62 years old!

While the Fernandez boys attended San Beda in high school, I went to Mapa High.  Because I started first grade when I was five years old (normal starting age was seven), I was the youngest in our class in high school.  My favorite subjects were math and science.  I also liked art, so I took Graphic Arts as an elective in my junior and senior years.

There were about 50 sections in our graduating class in Mapa High.  Each section had about 30 students.  Each student was assigned to a section based on his or her grades the previous year.  Students in Section 1 would have the highest grades, while those in Section 50, the lowest.  I was in Section 2 in my senior year.  Our class graduated from high school in March of 1957.

I went to college at the University of the Philippines right after high school but I only studied there for one semester for financial reasons.  I transferred to the Polytechnic Colleges of the Philippines (PCP), taking evening classes.  In my second year in college, I began to realize I could not complete my education to get a degree.  My parents would not be able to pay for my education for very long.  My parents were getting old and it was getting more and more difficult for them to run their laundry business. But if I quit school, I wouldn’t know what to do with my life with no skills.  I wouldn’t be good at doing manual labor.  I was a 100-pound weakling when I was in college.

I learned that a couple of young men in our neighborhood had joined the U.S. Navy as stewards.  I also learned that stewards in the U.S. Navy worked in the kitchen and cleaned the officers quarters.

 I became interested and wanted to know how they got in.  I talked to their families to get more information and I learned that I had to get an appointment first at the U.S. Naval Base at Sangley Point for a written test, for an interview and a rigid physical exam.  I thought I would give it a try just to see how far I would get in the application process.  Even if I passed the written test and the interview, I didn’t know how I would pass the physical exam with my 100-pound frame.

I wrote to Sangley Point several times requesting an appointment but all I got back in response to each letter was a rejection postcard saying “We will contact you when we need you” or words to that effect.  Oh well, that was the end of that, I thought.

Then a classmate from PCP told me how I could get an appointment at Sangley Point.  He said I should first write the President of the Philippines  at the Malacanang Palace to get a letter of recommendation, then enclose that letter in my letter to Sangley Point requesting  an appointment.  So I wrote President Carlos P. Garcia, the sitting president requesting a letter of recommendation.  It must have been election season because I got a quick reply with the recommendation letter.  The response was from his Vice President, Diosdado Macapagal.  Enclosing the recommendation from the Vice President.  I asked Sangley Point for an appointment, and within a week, I was delighted to receive a reply telling me when I should report for my appointment.  That was in 1958.  I was only 17.

My Uncle Pelagio accompanied me to Sangley Point as I didn’t know how to get there.  We took the bus.  He waited outside the gate while I went in for my written exam and interview. It must have taken all day for the whole process as there were hundreds of us.   I passed the exam and interview, but when the recruiter realized I was only 17, he told me to come back the next year for my physical exam.  I was given an appointment for October 22, 1959. I will never forget that date as that would be my 18th birthday.  I was disappointed at first that I would have to wait another year, but then I realized I could never pass the physical if I had taken it right then.  Right away, I would flunk it because I was underweight.  But now I had one year to get in shape.

Mr. Fernandez and I played chess a lot.  We became close; he and his whole family treated me like I was part of the family.  When he learned about my prospects to join the U.S. Navy and that I needed to be fit for my physical exam, he offered his help by enrolling me in a physical fitness program at the YMCA.  I exercised, lifted weights and swam three times a week for a year.  I weighed 115 pounds just before my scheduled physical.  I heard that the weight requirement was 120 pounds.  I needed to gain five more pounds before I stepped on the scale at Sangley.  The trip to Sangley was two hours from Santol.  My Uncle Pelagio gave me a brown paper bag full of bananas to take on the bus.  His instructions were to eat as many as I could before I got to the gate at Sangley.  I must have eaten five pounds of bananas.  I passed my physical exam.

After meeting all the requirements to enlist and now waiting to get sworn in, I asked myself if I really wanted to do this.  I would be away from my parents for the first time not knowing when I would return.  I wasn’t sure how I would perform working as a steward.  At that time I knew I couldn’t be anything else but a steward. If I didn’t go through with this I would have a dead-end career at home.  I wanted to help my parents as they got older.  At least as a steward I would have a steady income and would be able to help them out financially.  It was also exciting to think now I would have the chance to see the United States of America.  I had seen a lot of scenery in U.S. movies in technicolor and now I could see them in real life.  I signed up.