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    Brief Introduction: "A Glimpse of The Battlefield: A Hero From The Air"

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    Vincent Naval
    Lieutenant Geronimo Aclan was a Filipino fighter pilot who fought against the Japanese during World War 2 as part of the Philippine Army Air Corps. He trained as a pilot in the late 1930s and engaged Japanese planes after they bombed the Philippines in 1941. While outmatched by the Japanese aircraft, Aclan and his squadron helped repel early attacks. He later went into hiding from the Japanese as a spy and guerilla fighter. After the war, Aclan returned to the Philippines and lived a private life, though his service and that of other Filipino pilots during the war went largely unrecognized.

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    Brief Introduction: "A Glimpse of The Battlefield: A Hero From The Air"

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    Vincent Naval
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    Lieutenant Geronimo Aclan was a Filipino fighter pilot who fought against the Japanese during World War 2 as part of the Philippine Army Air Corps. He trained as a pilot in the late 1930s and engaged Japanese planes after they bombed the Philippines in 1941. While outmatched by the Japanese aircraft, Aclan and his squadron helped repel early attacks. He later went into hiding from the Japanese as a spy and guerilla fighter. After the war, Aclan returned to the Philippines and lived a private life, though his service and that of other Filipino pilots during the war went largely unrecognized.

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    SS016 Project

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    SS016 Proj

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    Lieutenant Geronimo Aclan was a Filipino fighter pilot who fought against the Japanese during World War 2 as part of the Philippine Army Air Corps. He trained as a pilot in the late 1930s and engaged Japanese planes after they bombed the Philippines in 1941. While outmatched by the Japanese aircraft, Aclan and his squadron helped repel early attacks. He later went into hiding from the Japanese as a spy and guerilla fighter. After the war, Aclan returned to the Philippines and lived a private life, though his service and that of other Filipino pilots during the war went largely unrecognized.

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    84 views8 pages

    Brief Introduction: "A Glimpse of The Battlefield: A Hero From The Air"

    Uploaded by

    Vincent Naval
    Lieutenant Geronimo Aclan was a Filipino fighter pilot who fought against the Japanese during World War 2 as part of the Philippine Army Air Corps. He trained as a pilot in the late 1930s and engaged Japanese planes after they bombed the Philippines in 1941. While outmatched by the Japanese aircraft, Aclan and his squadron helped repel early attacks. He later went into hiding from the Japanese as a spy and guerilla fighter. After the war, Aclan returned to the Philippines and lived a private life, though his service and that of other Filipino pilots during the war went largely unrecognized.

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    of 8

    MALAYAN COLLEGES LAGUNA

    Academic Year 2015 - 2016

    “A Glimpse of the Battlefield: A Hero from the Air”

    Vincent Lorenzo F. NAVAL


    SS016 / B09

    Professor Mercy Ros

    Brief Introduction
    In searching for a story about our local history project in SS016. There I asked
    my grandmother if she has any known veteran that it still alive up to this time,
    yet she answered no, but she quickly gave me a suggestion, but her suggestion
    is not a veteran, but a son of a veteran, no other than her closest friend, Mr.
    Renato Aclan. His father is Lieutenant Geronimo Aclan, a Filipino fighter pilot
    during World War II. There I interviewed him and asked about the life of his
    father before, during and after World War II. Then, here which I will be making
    a narrative account about the story of one of the heroes from the air.

    Lieutenant Geronimo Aclan


    This is Lieutenant
    Geronimo Aclan, one
    of the Filipino
    pilots who fought the
    Imperial Japanese
    Forces during the invasion
    of the Philippines. He is a member of the Philippine Army Air Corps 6 th pursuit
    squadron of World War II under the command of Captain Jesus Villamor and General
    Douglas McArthur of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East.

    Early Years

    Before the war, he is a student and studied high school at the Letran College
    in Manila, in where he graduated in 1936 as a class valedictorian. Soon after,
    he decided to take up medicine at the University of Sto. Tomas, but fate has
    it that after two years, he decided to join the Philippine Army Air Corps.
    During that time, the Philippine Army Air Corps was the only Air Force of the
    Philippine under an American umbrella. So he was accepted by the air force
    school and trained to become a fighter pilot. Their training was somewhere in
    the province of Batangas.
    His classmates at the Air Force School in Batangas

    World War II Era

    On the 7th of December 1941, the Empire of Japan suddenly attacked the US
    military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which led to the destruction of the
    US Navy and led to America’s entry into the war. Ten hours after the attacked
    on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Imperial Forces came and bombed US military bases in
    the Philippines. The Americans where so unprepared for the attacked and that
    leads to the destruction of their military bases. During the bombing of the
    Japanese Imperial Forces to the airfields of the Americans. The group of
    Lieutenant Aclan under the command of Captain Jesus Villamor were able to fly
    and engaged the Imperial Japanese Air Forces in the Air. Firefights began to
    erupt in the air zone of Manila and Southern Luzon Area.
    Lt. Geronimo Aclan and his squadron were deliberately protect one of their
    comrade who is in parachute after his warplane was shot by a Japanese warplane.
    Despite of their poorly modernize warplane, the first attacked was repelled
    and was praised by the Americans, especially by the American General Douglas
    McArthur, for their strategy in repelling tailing Japanese Imperial Air Force
    and protecting their comrades.

    A photo that illustrates their P-26 warplanes of the Philippine Air Force
    Corps engaging the modernized Zero warplane of the Imperial Japanese Air
    Force.
    The alarm once again ranged and alerted the Filipino pilots of the incoming
    Japanese bombers. They were quickly fly into the air to engage the Japanese
    Imperial Forces. This time, they were really no match for the Japanese Imperial
    Air Forces, one of their first casualty who was gunned by the Japanese was Lt.
    Cesar Basa, known to be the first casualty of the Filipino pilots. While the
    others were engaging the Japanese, Lt. Aclan targeted a Zero warplane of the
    Japanese to ram it, but he suddenly misses his strike that he decided to leave
    the battlefield and gone to Nueva Ecija to enjoin his wife.

    The P-26 warplane of Lt. Geronimo Aclan.

    When he landed in Nueva Ecija to joined his wife, they quickly leave their
    placed their and has fled to the mountains to escaped the Japanese hunt for
    him.

    During those times, Captain Villamor was already in Australia with Gen. Douglas
    McArthur. Capt. Villamor then established a spy agency to the Philippines to
    view the situation in the Philippines. There he joined that agency and was able
    to report the activities of the Japanese in Manila, he was spying the Japanese
    by being a cab driver. However, he was catch up by the Japanese Forces and
    quickly declared him as a prisoner of war. In the march to Bataan, together
    with some other men of the Philippine Army and spies of the Americans, he was
    able to escape the march and again fled to the mountains to join his wife and
    the guerillas. But after that, he just stayed in the mountains until the
    submarines that delivers supplies to the Philippines was able to get him out
    the country and together fled to Australia to join Capt. Villamor.
    After in Australia, they were assigned to the United States mainland, to train
    them to a modernize warplane in order to help the Americans to liberalize the
    Philippines and invade the Empire of Japan. However, before they were sent to
    war, the Japanese suddenly surrendered to the Allied Forces.

    Post-War Period
    After their training to the United States, they were able to go back to the
    Philippines. But quietly they returned because of some Japanese soldiers still
    roam the rural areas and they might suspected him. But during the time of
    President Marcos, the Japanese were quickly caught and deported back to Japan.
    Then there, Lt. Geronimo Aclan started to live in a private life and spend time
    in teaching and educating his sons and daughters.

    These men were not known to us all, except for their Captain, who is Jesus
    Villamor. Until then, they did served well and sacrificed their lives for the
    sake of our motherland. MABUHAY ANG 6TH PURSUIT SQUADRONS NG PHILIPPINE ARMY
    AIR CORPS!!! MABUHAY SI LIETUNANT GERONIMO ACLAN!!!
    Personal Reflection
    Last June 27, 2015 (Saturday), I interviewed the son of one of
    the heroes of World War II in the Philippines. He is Mr. Renato Aclan, son of
    Lt. Geronimo Aclan of the Philippine Army Air Corps.

    During my interview to him, I asked him about what was his


    father’s life then during the war, which that does not written in any history
    book in our country. Then he answered me that only their commanders are the
    only one recognized, no them. Because if they should be recognized, they should
    be dead first. It is also not included there that some books written that some
    of his comrades are dead are actually alive. There is really need to revise and
    to ensure the fact to the people of what did really happened to them. As I
    imagined while Mr. Aclan is telling me the story of his father, I just realized
    that he sacrificed so much, even his life for his country. He sacrificed his
    life with his family in order to serve the nation, to be free from the hands of
    the enemy or the oppressors. Truly, in times like this, each Filipinos has that
    patriotism in their hearts and ready to defend the motherland for whatever costs
    might take. Mabuhay ang ating mga bayani! Mabuhay si Lt. Geronimo Aclan!

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