Comments, photos and material contributed by Keith Buckingham
| John,
This sight is the greatest. Having been a former resident of the Philippines, I always looked forward to a visit to Clark. Our family lived on the island of Palawan in the mid 60's, in which time my Mother became gravely ill with malaria. A friend from Puerto Princesa happened to be in Manila and contacted someone at Clark to see if they would be able to help rescue an American who was in dire need. As it turned out, several Air Sea Rescue crew members had recently returned from a mission to rescue a pilot from the sea in an Albatross, and gladly volunteered for this mercy flight to aid my Mother. This must have been a long day for these guys having already flown they're mission to locate a downed pilot. In any event, we sure were glad to look up and see that big silver bird swoop down over our house, and drop us a letter bomb with that long orange streamer attached with instructions to meet them out in Panacan Bay. You can't imagine the pure thrill and excitement, not only was Mom being rescued, but having a US Air force airplane land in our little village, let alone an amphibian touching down in the bay; this was a good day!!! Once we reached the plane about a 1/2 a mile off shore, the crewmen promptly secured Mom inside and made tracks for Manila where an ambulance was waiting. If it weren't for Clark and those guys, Mom probably wouldn't be here today. I hope, possibly through your website we might be able to identify and locate those crew members from that flight, so that we may thank them once again. The date was March 10, 1967 when we heard that big Grumman overhead, a day I will never forget. Enclosed are a few photos of the aircraft and crew during the mission. |
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The air sea rescue plane from Clark AB |
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Thank you so much for the web page. It looks great!!! Our Mothers name was Joyce Buckingham, with Father Merle, and the three of us being Dave, Laura and myself Keith. We were a missionary family with ABWE, living in the town of Nara. Our friend from Puerto was Bud DeVries or Uncle Bud as we called him. He was a Boat Captain / missionary and had an association with Clark that entailed taking teenagers from the base to camp treasure Island on his boat for a tropical retreat. The boat was 45 feet and called Gospel Launch II. Our Father was killed in an airplane on Dec. 22, 1968 while conducting a food drop to a remote village with no airstrip. It was an MAF Cessna 180 in which the power plant failed during climb out. Mom remarried in 72 with Howard Bergmann, whom she spent 26 happy years with until his death sept. 98. During the period between 68-72 we were in the Manila region. Having attended Faith Academy at this time, we became more familiar with Clark at competing sports events, and while traveling to Baguo. Again thanks for posting the pictures, and I hope this explains better of who we were. Feel free to write for any additional info needed. Dave's Email is DBuck0356@aol.com
class of 75
Keith '81 |
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The plane waits for mom |
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Securing mom onboard the plane |
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Meeting the rescue plane in the bay |
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The ambulance in Manila |
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The aircrew |
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