Word: olongapo
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Poverty in the Philippines has fostered the feeling that "the Americans have so much, we should have some too." As a result, Olongapo has the brutal reputation of the most dangerous liberty port in the Pacific. Dependent families are scared to leave the base. The facilities you mentioned are their only recreation...
Subic Bay, a major liberty port for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, has a permanent base force of 8,000-swollen by as many as 9,000 sailors passing through on shore leave. Much of their contribution to the local economy is made in the honky-tonk town of Olongapo, where the principal commodity for sale is sex. About 15,000 Olongapo residents are registered "bar girls," many of them infected with a penicillin-resistant strain of gonorrhea known as "Viet Nam Rose." According to Navy estimates, American sailors spent $128 million in Olongapo last year...