Wallace Air Station
- History And Discription -

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E....Wallace Air Station. This 101 hectares of base land located at the end of Poro Point in San Fernando was acquired in 1903 for the United States Cavalry. It was, much later, the home of the 848th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron which provided logistics and administrative support to other radar detachments under its chain of command.

....Formally turned-over by the United States to the Republic of the Philippines on September 16, 1991, the Bases Conversion Development Authority is overseeing the plans for the conversion of the area into a prime tourism and industrial estate.

....The former Wallace Air Station can be located in the Province of La Union, which is located in the southwestern part of Region I and stretches over a length of 102 kilometers from North to South between 120 decree 16' and 120 decree 35' longtitude and 160 decree 15' latitude.

....The Province of La Union is bounded on the north by Ilocos Sur, on the south by Pangasinan, on the east by Benguet, and on the west by the China Sea.

I have recently been in contact with a person named Robert Widner, who I now know as, one of the plank holders of the Wallace area. He has told me that when China started entering North Korea, during the Korean war, the US chose this area, now known as Wallace, for a listening station. This was also the beginnings for the Voice of America in this area. Today, I will be scanning his photos for this page of the site showing the temporary tent set ups and portable equipment that were used for this operation.

When I first started speaking with him, of this operation, I was sure that it was another area used temporarily and would be an area that I could add to the "USmilitaryPI" site. But as we continued to communicate, on how they retrieved supplies and equipment from the Air Base John Hay (which he said was 2 miles away toward the east), it was becoming evident that the location he was speaking of was Wallace. One of the photos he had shows the area from a C49 which we used to start our comparison. That was the photo that locked in the proof that these two locations were the same. Not only was I surprised by this, but Robert was surprised how this temporary location had turned into a full blown base with many important missions over the years.

As I say, I will be spending today scanning all of his photos so I can get them back to him in the mail tomorrow. These photos consist of, not only Wallace, but will have additions to the Clark site and for the new section I'll be adding, for general photos of Manila. So hang in there. Not sure when I'll have the time to add these photos, but it should be within the month. I would also like to thank Robert Widner for spending his time, over the past two weeks, telling me about his journey in the Philippines and the hug efforts he has put out to share his times and photos with all of us.

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