Kong's Post War Story

Was riding with Kong and Gwammy on our way to the Ayala Triangle (that was the lunch in Pho 24), when our conversation floated to the Nielsen Tower and the runways of the airport in pre-war Makati.  I knew that he learned how to drive at the airport runway and asked him if he learned to drive around the Nielsen Tower.  "No," he replied.  Apparently, he learned how to drive around the runways in Clark Field, then known as Fort Stotsenberg, right after WWII.  He was assigned as a valet to General Bebee who was camp commander at that time.  During his stint there, he learned how to drive Jeeps, and had his first taste of plane flights from Clark Field to Manila.  When classes started at the University of the Philippines, Kong was part of the group that transferred the university from Padre Faura to the Diliman campus, and in 1949 graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  His first job was to manage a nail-making factory in Imbyernes, Sta. Ana, and thereafter, went to the Visayas to work in Cebu as the manager of the Ford branch there.  He subsequently worked in Mindanao, as the manager of the Chevrolet branch in Davao.  Cars, cars and more cars--the automobile industry defined his work till his retirement in the late nineties.