How Did the Cubi Point O’Club Bar Find a Home at the National Naval Aviation Museum?

By CAPT Brian Buzzell, USN (Ret.)

One of the first things you learned starting flight school as an Aviation Officer Candidate (AOC) in 1969 was the importance to Naval Aviation of the culture and traditions surrounding officer clubs. In fact, as an AOC we were schooled in proper officer club etiquette and decorum and just before our commissioning there would be an AOC Ball where Pensacola young ladies (and wives of SBMA AOCs) were invited, and the Etiquette Lady graded us on our behavior. Officer Clubs were very much a part of our lives as newly minted officers and future Naval Aviators.

There were many famous NAS Officer Clubs in the 1970’s and 80’s. NAS Oceana, NAS Breezy Point, NAS North Island, and NAS Miramar (made even more famous by the movie Top Gun), but arguably the most famous of all was NAS Cubi Point O’ Club. Here, legends were made, careers ruined, and lives changed forever. I suspect in today’s wardrooms and at happy hours stories are still being told of the exploits and debauchery that took place inside Cubi Point O’ Club. The “etiquette lady” would have been appalled.

The fact of the matter is they are just stories, mostly folklore, as it has been 29 years since the club closed and there are very few if any active-duty aviators that experienced firsthand a happy hour at the Cubi Point O’ Club.

The club was always lively as carriers and small boys came into Subic Bay having been on Yankee Station for months during the Vietnam War or coming home from the Gulf after Desert Storm. Once ashore, the Naval Aviators gathered en masse at the club to wind down from months of combat sorties and the inherent dangers of Naval Aviation. There were no “rules” at the Cubi Point O’ Club other than the Air Wing had to pay for the damage which inevitably occurred. It got so bad during Vietnam that the Club manager required a $10,000 deposit before the carrier pulled into Subic.

At some point during this cycle of deployments it became a tradition for each squadron, every staff, and each helicopter detachment to leave behind a squadron memento, plaque, or ornate carving with every pilot’s name inscribed on it. These mementos were dutifully placed in an appropriate location in the bar. Most squadrons negotiated with the club manager for the location before having the memento made by the skilled Filipino craftsman in Olongapo. During my HSL-37 LAMPS Detachment WESTPAC 1980-81 forward deployment out of NAF Atsugi, I had a wooden replica of a Mad Bird made to hang over the left corner of the bar. You can see it today hanging in the Museum Café in precisely the same place.

By the early 1990’s, some would argue a good portion of Naval Aviation history resided in the Cubi Point O’ Club Bar. I was one of them. So was RADM Tom Mercer, USN (Ret.) formerly COMNAVUSPHIL, my immediate boss and CAPT Bruce Wood, USN (Ret.) the last CO of NAS Cubi Point. This history belonged to Naval Aviation, not the Philippine government.

The time frame was 1992 and because of the Philippine Senate’s rejection of the renewal of the Military Bases Agreement the U.S. Navy was in the process of closing all its installations in the Philippines, the largest being Naval Operating Base, Subic Bay. The plan was to be out of the Philippines by Thanksgiving with a 2-stage withdrawal; the closure and turnover of Naval Station Subic by September 30th followed by closure and turnover of NAS Cubi Point on Wednesday, November 25th in time for the last remaining Navy personnel to get home to the states for Thanksgiving.

Captain Bruce Wood and I met several times to devise a plan to remove certain artifacts from the club before the Philippine government officially made a request to have the property remain in place. I was the liaison with the Philippine government for the withdrawal and my days were consumed by Philippine officials requesting everything from bowling alleys, horses, computers, office equipment, PWC transformers, etc. to be left in place or sold to the Philippine government via the excess defense articles DRMO process. Mayor Richard Gordon of Olongapo City and the first Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman had plans to keep the O' Club open after our withdrawal. His primary focus was the bar. He knew the importance it had with the Navy. The Mayor’s plan was for it to be the main tourist attraction for SBMA. I knew this.

The main entrance to the Club today. After the closure SBMA made it into a conference center. The Philippines hosted APEC 1996 at Subic Bay. President Clinton attended and spent the day inside the former NAS Cubi PT O’Club renamed “SUMMIT.” Since then, the club was left to the monkeys and jungle and I am told it has been sold to a Chinese investor who intends to tear it down and replace it with a Chinese Casino.

Our plan was to contact several Naval museums with our first choice being the National Naval Aviation Museum (NNAM) in Pensacola, Fl. After several back n’ forth discussions, the NNAM eventually accepted our offer and Captain Wood executed the removal down to the wood on the bar itself with U.S. sailors. Captain Wood was not to inform me when this would occur. Why? So that I and Admiral Mercer had plausible deniability with the Philippine government. The Filipinos had been given the day off to keep them from knowing what we were up to, but the next morning quickly reported the removal of the bar to the Mayor. Mayor Gordon was terribly upset, called me to his office and lectured me for over an hour. By then the crates were on their way to Pensacola. CAPT Wood had a C-130 on the tarmac that night to ensure the bar had left Philippine airspace by the time Philippine government officials found out about its removal. As an aside, this was just one of many disputes over Navy property I had with Mayor Gordon.

Additionally, Captain Wood with lots of encouragement, agreed to sell the Cubi Point O’Club Mikasa china dinnerware to those of us still at Subic with the proceeds going to MWR. The unsold china was shipped to the Museum, too. I have a complete set which I use when fellow WESTPAC Naval Officers come for dinner.

The Cubi Point O’Club closed at midnight on Saturday, 21 November with the Filipino band in the downstairs Ready Room Bar/Disco Lounge playing the Rolling Stones song "I Can’t Get No Satisfaction." In the bar that night were Admiral Mercer, Captain Wood, myself, several of his staff officers, and Marine Officers from the USS Belleau Wood (LHA 3) brought in to Subic Bay to support the last 3 weeks of the withdrawal.

And that is how the Cubi Point O’ Club Bar came to the National Naval Aviation Museum.

HSL-37 Det 7 Mad Bird hanging on the left corner of the bar where it was in November 1992.

Do you have a Cubi Point O' Club story to tell? Send it in to Rotor Review. We are planning an in-depth lookback for the Summer issue. Our email is rotor review@navalhelicopterassn.org. Pictures are always welcome. If requested, your anonymity will be respected.