Jess (James) Mamangun

I once read that swimming may very well be the best workout but not everyone has access to a swimming pool so the next best thing is bicycling but then again not everyone owns a bike. So I've decided that walking IS BY FAR the best workout because all one practically needs is a decent pair of legs!

I'm psyched cause I walked again last Saturday and one time around the part and two times around the lake are basically equal to my 4K walk (roughly one hour) around Greenfields. Lucky me, no allergy symptoms afterwards.

Anyway, back to the blog at hand.
In December of '75, I and Jesus (James) Mamangun (one of us three Kapampangans, I believe) plus 20 or so Navy (Subic Bay) recruits flew from Clark Air Force Bay to San Francisco International airport. We stayed a day or so over at Treasure Island connecting the Bay Bridge. Later on we flew to the Naval Recruit Training Center in San Diego. I failed the swim test so I got assigned to company 334 while James and the rest of the swim test passers went to company 333. We parted ways after boot camp and got stationed to different destinations.


After my three year stint as an SK (that's storekeeper for you landlubbers) at the USS White Plains homeported in Yokosuka, Japan (where Reggie would be born), I got transferred to NAS New Orleans. Eph and Reg were barely toddlers then. All of a sudden, here comes Mess Specialist Third Class (MS3 or was he an MS2 by then?) Mamangun, his wife Sella, daughter Michelle and a baby on the way. Jeremy was born in New Orleans got Christened and I was one of the godfathers.

Thirty months in New Orleans and I was ready to get out of the service while Pareng James received orders to report to a ship in San Diego. We drove in our Toyota Corolla hatchback, towing a U Haul from New Orleans to San Diego. With four adults and four kids cooped up in the small car, a few friends warned us not to do it saying we won't be talking to each other by the time we get to San Diego. We didn't listen of course. The drive took us three days and we arrived in San Diego closer than when we left New Orleans.

Life went on with me as a civilian working for Goodrich while Pareng James continued and would put in a total of 30 years in the Navy retiring in Hawaii as an E9 - MSMC (Master Chief Petty Officer) the highest rank to be had as an enlisted. Unfortunately he got diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer which, thank goodness, is now in remission and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) which necessitates for him to breath with the help of an oxygen tank when engaging in semi strenuous activities. That's the bad news. The good news - due to his ailments, he receives all kinds of benefits in addition to his Navy pension.

Michelle is now married and newly pregnant and has gotten a degree in social work while our godson Jeremy is a full fledged RN.

Pare, I took the liberty of borrowing your pictures for my blog.


Last March, Pareng James and Mareng Sella visited us in Sindalan. By the way, I found out that friend and former high school class mate Tonette Magtoto Gomez is Mareng Sella's first cousin. Pareng James hooked up with several of their former elementary and high school classmates in Minalin and had several reunions one of which was held at the Bale Capampangan restaurant in Dolores after which they proceeded to our house and had an enjoyable Karaoke session.

We took them all over the place: several trips to Minalin, the Monasterio de Tarlac in the town of San Jose, The National Shrine in Capas, Subic, Candaba and we even took them to have some halo-halo at Jurado's in Arayat. Friend and classmate Alyce Violeta Vazquez was in the country at the time to attend to her ill mother and to give herself a break, we took her with us to the Monasterio.


Pareng James was able to play kwaho with Donna and Leda when my sister-in-law visited one day.


They stayed with us most of the days they were in the Philippines which gave us a chance to reminisce on the good old days in the Navy. Pareng James told us so many stories that by the time they left for Hawaii, it's as if I never got out of the service!