Saturday, March 20, 2010

VILLAMOR -WORLD WAR TWO HERO


WAR suddenly came to the Philippines when I was just 11 years old. After a week in the hills of Antipolo preceded by the frenzied evacuation trauma, we were finally back home in Arlegui just as Manila was declared by President Manuel Quezon as an “open city” to allow the Japanese Forces to securely march into Manila without having any shots fired.
Villamor received military decorations from the Philippine and the United States governments for his wartime services and heroism. Just before Manila became an “open city,” Filipino fighter pilots using the pre-war double wing type of single engine planes, and engaged Japanese fighter pilots who were carrier- based. Among the fearless Filipino pilots at the time was Jesus Antonio Villamor. He is the son of Ignacio Villamor, who was the first president of the University of the Philippines.Villamor did not “plan” to be a hero. One of seven children, he studied commerce at De La Salle College in Manila, hoping to pursue a business career. In 1936, he joined the Philippine Army Air Corps (PAAC) Flying School. He never foresaw that this would change his life forever.

Because of Villamor’s outstanding performance as a cadet, he was picked as a sponsored scholar to take advance flight training in the U.S.. With his superior mind, Villamor breezed through the course in three years instead of the usual four years. Soon, Villamor found himself in B-17 and B-22 cockpits as part of the U. S. Air Force’s Strategic Bombing Squadron training. After a series of postings, Villamor, returned to the Philippines and was singled out as the leader of the 6th Pursuit Squadron in time to go into action the moment the Second World War began. Terribly mismatched -- Villamor flying the old-style double wing fighter plane versus the Japanese Zeros fighter pilots -- he and his squadron of Filipino P-26 fighters nevertheless held their own against the fully armed and trained Japanese pilots in dogfight after dogfight. One journalist even fashioned his report thus: “The Filipino pilots etched their courage and skills in the skies above Zablan and Batangas airfields. Alas, in no time at all, Villamor’s overwhelmed unit was terribly beaten.”Joining the underground guerilla forces during the war years, Villamor continued unabated his fight against the Japanese Forces in his role as intelligence officer somewhere in the Luzon hills. On December 27, 1942, Villamor was able to slip past the Japanese Forces aboard the submarine “Gudgeon.” He then established a chain of direct communication from the Philippines with General Douglas MacArthur, who was by then based in Australia, coordinating the activities of various units operating in Luzon, Mindanao and the Visayas. Villamor acted as the “clearing house” for information, which greatly assisted the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (Usaffe) to map out a strategy that led to the liberation of the Philippines in 1945.

For his bravery as a pilot and ingenuity as an intelligence officer, President Ramon Magsaysay awarded Lieutenant Colonel Jesus Antonio Villamor the Medal of Valor on January 21, 1954. As further tribute to one of the greatest World War II heroes, the Philippine Air Force’s principal facility in Metro Manila has been named Col. Jesus Villamor Air Base in honor of this Filipino hero. In 1946, he was appointed director of the Bureau of Aeronautics, and assisted in the planning of the Manila International Airport, and later became its director.