THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410200136
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By Denise Watson
Staff Writer
LENGTH: Long : 334 lines
THE BATTERED PT 41 slid up to the shell-torn pier at 7:21 p.m. and idled quietly as the crew waited for Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his family to arrive. Within minutes, the MacArthurs were there, the general's wife carrying a small suitcase that held her dress and a pantsuit, young Arthur holding his stuffed animal, Old Friend. The general carried nothing but a toothbrush stashed in his pocket.
It was March 11, 1942, and Corregidor was about to fall into the hands of the Japanese. MacArthur had received a presidential order to leave his troops and escape the Philippine island days before. He had avoided this moment for as long as he could - until now. There was no more time. The Japanese bombing had ceased for the day, and MacArthur stood on the pier long after everyone had boarded.
MacArthur took his time looking back over the land, then finally raised his hand to his field marshal's cap and gave a final salute.
In the following days, MacArthur would be called a deserter for leaving his troops and a hero for evading the enemy. Arriving in Australia, worn and weary, he would declare, ``I came through and I shall return!''
Fifty years ago today, MacArthur kept his promise when he re-entered the Leyte Gulf to begin the largest naval battle in U.S. history and reclaim the Philippines.
MacArthur would become a man whom some people loved as much as others hated. He became a demagogue to some, with an ego that rivaled his military genius. And there's the other MacArthur, the friend, family man and soldier others knew during his determined campaign to recapture the Philippines. "He was like a father to me."
WHEN MacARTHUR told the world he would return to the Philippines, Francis Salveron, like many Filipinos, cried.
Salveron had barely escaped the Japanese invasion himself. In February 1942, Salveron was aboard a U.S. transport ship when it has hit by Japanese Zero fighter planes. The ship sank quickly, leaving the crew in a sea infested with sharks. When rescue patrols arrived 12 hours later, only Salveron and about a third of the crew survived. He was taken to Australia while his wife and two small children were trapped in Manila.
It was in an Australian hospital that Salveron heard MacArthur's encouraging words and finally met the man when the general visited.
``He learned I had been a friend of a President Quezon, and shortly after his visit, I received orders to join Gen. MacArthur in New Guinea to be his personal aide,'' Salveron said. ``I didn't want to join the Army, but I joined because I wanted to get back to my family. . . . But being chosen to be his aide was one of the greatest honors I ever had.''
Salveron is now 94 and lives in Bladensburg, Md., with his wife of 63 years, Anastacia. To ask him to talk about MacArthur is perhaps the greatest compliment to the retired serviceman. He savors each memory like the peanuts he pops into his mouth at even intervals. He holds - no, caresses - an 8-by-10 photo of MacArthur to his chest, over his heart, as he speaks.
As MacArthur's personal assistant, Salveron carried the general's gun and extra tobacco for his famous corncob pipe. He would rise each morning at 4 to lay out the commander's uniform, belt, shoes, dark eyeglasses and the cane MacArthur carried because he said it brought him good luck.
It was Salveron's responsibility to make sure MacArthur had freshly squeezed orange juice - no water - with eggs, sunny side up, for breakfast while they were stationed for three months in New Guinea. He loved sprucing up the battered field cap for which MacArthur became famous.
But Salveron's role went beyond the obvious. Salveron became privy to military operations, one of the few to see the master strategist worry and doubt his next move. They became friends.
``He really cared about his people. . . . Whenever bombs would go off, the first words out of his mouth would be, `Are any of my boys hurt?,' '' Salveron said.
``He was always really careful not to spill any of the ashes from his pipe or cigar, because he didn't want to overwork the janitor. . . . And he was like a father to me.''
Salveron served as MacArthur's assistant for two years, until the famous return to Leyte Beach on Oct. 20, 1944. It's one of Salveron's fondest memories and he sits up straighter, instinctively, as he recalls.
The general couldn't leave the USS Nashville until the afternoon, after the troops had the beachhead secured. The invasion began in the early morning, and more than 100,000 troops had landed by the time the general and Philippine President Sergio Osmena boarded the landing barge.
Salveron took the first step off the barge to make sure the water wasn't too deep for the commander.
A few seconds later, soldiers yelled at him to get his attention: ``Sergeant! Sergeant! Don't you know there are snipers in the coconut trees?''
Salveron looked at MacArthur, who ignored the warning and continued to walk. Salveron said nothing and waded toward the beach.
The party moved to a clearing that had a microphone and broadcast system ready to broadcast the messages of MacArthur and Osmena to the Philippine people. MacArthur's ``I have returned'' speech was something to remember.
After the later landing at Lingayen Gulf, ``He told me, `Go to the southern part of Manila, be careful not to cross the enemy line, and your wife and children will be waiting for you.' ''
How MacArthur knew of his family's whereabouts, Salveron never knew. He never asked. Salveron found his family, his wife malnourished and close to a nervous breakdown. MacArthur had the family airlifted to San Fransico, where Salveron's wife could get the best treatment.
MacArthur bade Salveron goodbye as he boarded the plane. It would be the last time he would see MacArthur alive.
``It was a very sad goodbye. I think it was the only time I saw him cry,'' Salverson recalled. "I think I really love this man."
DR. ROGER OLAF EGEBERG had no idea his letter would get that much attention, or stir that much trouble for that matter.
Stationed in Milne Bay, New Guinea, in 1942, Egeberg had an epidemic of malaria on his hands and sent a litany of letters to his commanders requesting more medical supplies.
``Our men were so sick, the Japanese could've come in and gone just like this,'' Egeberg said, blowing into the air and knocking over imaginary dominoes as he sat in his Washington, D.C., home. ``Fortunately, the Japanese had it too.''
After months of writing letters and getting responses such as, ``Make sure your men are visiting their prophylactic centers,'' Egeberg had had enough.
``They apparently thought malaria was some sort of sexually transmitted disease. . . . I finally wrote them back and, well, I put some things in there that I don't think are fit to print.''
Apparently they weren't. Court martial proceedings against Egeberg were started but were suddenly halted. He soon received an invitation to interview for a position as physician and aide-de-camp to Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
``MacArthur's clerk later told me that the letter made it all the way to the general's desk, and the general read it and said, `I think we ought to have a fellow up here like that.'''
Egeberg said that he hadn't heard much of MacArthur before receiving the invitation and told his commander he would prefer to take his leave and go home. His commander listened and told him squarely, ``Well, just think about it tonight and come back tomorrow with a different answer.'' Egeberg met MacArthur three days later.
``I walked into his office and started to go to attention, when this guy walked up to me with his hand extended. It was MacArthur,'' Egeberg said.
``And it wasn't an interview. He had already decided he wanted me and what he wanted me to do. He wanted me to get to know his officers.'' said Egeberg, now 90.
``He said, `You know we have a lot of men here under considerable stress, and I want you to let me know if you see someone who needs to be relieved. If that means sending them back to the States, I'll arrange it.
``He cared that much about his staff.''
Egeberg joined MacArthur and soon became known as ``Doc'' in MacArthur's camp. Others would say the two became so close that Doc became a part of MacArthur's family.
Even though his specialty was medicine, it wasn't unusual for Doc to join some of MacArthur's strategy sessions. The night before the landing on Leyte Beach, MacArthur spent a great deal of time working on his speech.
``He felt this was going to be a very important time, a time to rally the Philippine people, to reassure the guerrillas, to warn the Japanese, and to tell the world. There was no doubt that he was going to say, `I have returned,' '' Egeberg said.
``He was reading his speech and he used the phrase `and the tinkle of the laughter of little children will again be heard on the streets.' I burst out with, `That's an old cliche and it stinks!' I didn't use language like that with the general that often, and he looked a little startled. But he crossed it out.''
Egeberg quickly adds that MacArthur was not a person to bend easily, something he would realize even more as MacArthur's forces invaded the Philippines.
Soon after the Leyte landing, MacArthur moved into a house located in Tacloban, Leyte. The house was roomy, big enough for MacArthur's quarters, office and the mess. After dinner, MacArthur and Doc would sit on the porch that opened into the general's office. The Japanese soon figured out where MacArthur's new home was.
``At least once, sometimes twice a night, we'd be eating dinner and you'd hear the planes circling overhead, ready to bomb us. You'd hear the power dive and you had a second or a half-second before you knew whether or not you were going to be blown up or not,'' Egeberg said.
``I used to light a cigarette to see if I could, to show that my hand wasn't shaking. We used to ask the general to leave, to go somewhere safer when bombers would come near, but he wasn't going to hide. He'd sit there and continue talking like there was nothing going on.''
Egeberg says he wasn't sure if it was bravery or bravado that kept the general at the table. He questioned the general about it later.
``I think he felt guilty about leaving a place where his men had been or had just been killed and going back to headquarters and sitting down at a white table cloth and eating a good meal. . . . I told him I realized why he put himself out there so much, taking so many risks, but he said he was just testing his time and it just wasn't his time yet.''
Egeberg became used to adventures with MacArthur, like when the general would hand him a gun and say, ``Why don't you go and check out that side'' of a house that Japanese soldiers had occupied minutes earlier. And jeep trips that bordered enemy territory while MacArthur bounced around his ideas on invading Japan.
Shortly after Japan's surrender in 1945, Doc hid behind a screen with MacArthur's wife, Jean, as MacArthur greeted Emperor Hirohito for the first time.
``I couldn't really hear anything, but it was exciting to be present at such a historic event,'' Egeberg said.
He stayed with MacArthur until the end of the war and stayed in contact with him until the general's death in 1964. Several years later, Egeberg approached Jean MacArthur with the idea of writing a book about his life with MacArthur.
She smiled and said, ``He always wanted you to.''
The book, ``The General: MacArthur and the Man He Called `Doc' '' was published 10 years ago. On the cover is a photo of MacArthur and his landing in Lingayen Coast in the Philippines. To the right is the man who didn't want to meet the general in the first place.
``I remember writing my wife about three months after I had been with MacArthur and telling her: `You know, I think I really love this man. I love the way he cares for his troops.'' "I have been most fortunate."
ELMER HECK was a pharmacist's aide on the USS Nashville when it was selected as MacArthur's quarters for the mission to recapture the Philippines.
It was routine to send a corpsman out with the general whenever MacArthur landed, and one day Heck asked his chief for permission to go. It happened to be Oct. 20.
``I had no idea it was going to be such an auspicious day. I was just ready to get off the boat,'' said Heck, now 78.
The general and his entourage took a small boat to another ship to pick up Philippine President Sergio Osmena and then boarded a landing barge that headed toward Leyte Beach.
``Someone said that the general set up that shot, of him getting off the boat and walking through the water. But that wasn't true,'' Heck said. ``We hit a sandbar and there was no other way to get off. He got his feet wet and so did I.''
The beach by this time was covered with injured soldiers. Some GIs were carrying their wounded comrades away; medics started administering plasma there in the sand. Gunfire could still be heard in the distance.
Heck said the general and the president walked over to the clearing and the microphone. A little rain began to fall as Heck stopped about 10 feet from the general as MacArthur picked up the microphone.
This is what Heck wrote his wife later that evening:
``Now for some good news! Your `old man' was fortunate enough to be in the same boat with the general when he first stepped foot on the Philippines for his return, and accompanied him through his inspection tour. (If you have seen any Universal newsreels, and if they weren't cut, I was in it. I took off my hat.)
`You can bet that I was quite impressed with the greatness of the occasion, for it has been a long, hard task for that man to keep his promise to the Filipinos that `I will come back and drive the invaders from your shores.'
``The general took the microphone, and as he spoke, he put feeling into it: `Filipinos, I am here. Arise! Remember the dead of Bataan. Remember your own dead!' When he finished, he was trembling and wrought with emotion. The microphone and the paper on which his speech was written were shaking like leaves in the winds.
``We landed and met the president of the Philippine Commonwealth - President Osmena - and walked around the beachhead. I was hoping to see a dead Jap or find some sort of souvenir, but no such luck. The general walks a fast gait which left little time to straggle around. . . .
``You can't deny that I have been most fortunate in being permitted to be present. It was luck and nothing else, for I was not particularly selected. You can bet I feel very proud to have been there with him on that first day, for it will remain history (until the next war).
`I hope you won't be jealous when I tell you that I wouldn't have missed yesterday's events for love nor money.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Photo from] MacArthur Memorial
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI / Staff photos
Francis Salveron, circled in photo at left walking ashore with Gen.
Douglas MacArthur at Leyte Beach, holds a photo of the general given
to him by MacArthur in 1945.
[Photo from] MacArthur Memorial
Dr. Roger Olaf Egeberg, circled at left with MacArthur at Clark Air
Field in the Philippines, at first didn't want to join the general's
staff.
[Photo from] ELMER HECK
Elmer Heck was a corpsman in 1944. In photo at left, when he joined
MacArthur for his historic landing.
LISTEN TO HISTORY
To hear Gen. Douglas MacArthur's speech upon his return to the
Philippines, dial 640-5555 and press 3684 (DOUG).
MacArthur Memorial Museum
Graphic by ROBERT D. VOROS/Staff
SOURCE: MacArthur Memorial Museum
[This graphic can be found on page B4 for this date.]
This monumental rotunda, which was Norfolk's City Hall in 1850,
is the final resting place for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, one of the
most colorful and controversial men in American history.
The memorial at MacArthur Square, where he was interred in 1964,
includes four main buildings, some of which were added in 1967 and
others renovated since, including the latest remodeling of the
rotunda completed in May. The complex houses a theater, library and
archives of 5,000 volumes of the general's books and 2 million items
of correspondence, reports, photographs and motion pictures.
Nine separate galleries are arranged in two levels that circle
the rotunda and portray the principal periods of MacArthur's life.
His 1950 Chrysler Imperial limousine he used also is on display in
an adjoining gift shop.
Text by Jack Dorsey / Staff
COMMEMORATIVE EVENTS
Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's
return to the Philippines and the Battle of Leyte Gulf will include
the following events:
Today
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
MacArthur Square
Commemorative ceremony
U.S. Army Continental Army Band
5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Celebration Pavilion, Nauticus
Commemorative ceremony
U.S. Atlantic Fleet Band
USS Kauffman (guided missile frigate open to visitors
Today through Saturday
MacArthur Theater
Symposium: ``General MacArthur Returns to the Philippines,
1944.''
Co-sponsored by Old Dominion University
Saturday
Noon
Ocean View Park
Re-enactment of MacArthur's wading ashore at Leyte
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Ocean View Park
Filipino Festival, featuring music, dance, costumes, food
11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Ocean View Park
Display of World War II and current vehicles, weapons and
equipment
Today through May 1995
MacArthur Memorial
Special exhibit: ``Return to the Philippines''
All events are open to the public free of charge
KEYWORDS: DOUGLAS MACARTHUR MACARTHUR MEMORIAL ANNIVERSARY by CNB