A tribute to our veterans on Veterans Day 2010

Hi Everyone,

Today we salute our veterans who served their countries (Philippines and USA) with honor, valor, and great sacrifice.  Someone said, "a veteran is someone who at one point in his/her life wrote a blank check payable to his country for an amount of up to and including his life."  Indeed, the men and women who entered the armed services of their country were prepared to give up their lives.  This, by any measure, is the gold standard of courage and love of country. 

Today we especially salute our classmates who helped preserve our freedoms.

In the Philippines:

In the US:

Thank you, dear classmates for your service.

UP High 1950, North America Chapter

Roger Austria 
Chairman 
North America Chapter 
UP High Class 1950 Alumni Association 

A Philippines Military Exercise on Spratly Islands (1991 - 1994)

Collage of pictures taken on Nov. 4, 1994 during the Philippine Army’s “Balikatan Exercises” that were staged between 1991 and 1994 on Spratly Islands. The Philippines military contingent, led by our own Col. Elpidio Loleng, flew into Spratly via C130 cargo plane. The airfield on Kalayaan Island (one of the Spratlys) is named after Brig. Gen. Jose L. Rancudo of the Armed Forces of the Philppines. The American contingent did not participate in Ped’s army exercise to avoid problems with China which also has a claim on the Spratlys.

According to Wikipedia:

The Spratly Islands are a group of more than 750 reefs, islets, atolls, cays, and islands in the South China Sea between Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Malaysia, and Brunei. They comprise less than four square kilometers of land area, spread over more than 425,000 square kilometers of sea. The Spratlys are part of the three archipelagos of the South China Sea, comprising more than 30,000 islands and reefs and which so complicates geography, governance and economics in that region of Southeast Asia. Such small and remote islands have little economic value in themselves, but are important in establishing international boundaries. There are no native islanders but there are rich fishing grounds and initial surveys indicate the islands may contain significant amounts of oil and gas. About 45 of the islands are occupied by relatively small numbers of military forces from Vietnam, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Malaysia, and the Philippines. Brunei has claimed an EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) in the southeastern part of the Spratlys encompassing just one area of small islands above mean high water (on Louisa Reef).