Creative Writing: Operation Fiery Vigil

Operation Fiery Vigil Growing up in the military, I was no stranger to picking up and moving from one place to another. By the age of 6, I had already flown across the Pacific Ocean four times! I was born on Clark Air Base in the Philippines, a large group of tropical islands located in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. After my sister was born, we were relocated to Carswell Air Force Base near Ft. Worth, Texas, which is where I spent the first two years of elementary school. From there, the military moved us back to the Philippines. Our last move, however, was both unexpected and definitely the most eventful. The year was 1991. School was almost out for the summer and our tightly knit military community was still reeling over
Pinatubo was a dormant volcano with a 5,700 foot summit located on the Philippine island of Luzon. Clark Air Base was just 9 miles to the east of the volcano’s summit. The large 7.8 magnitude earthquake that happened the year prior was a precursor of what was going to happen next. The next couple of months proved to be very mundane. We went to school, we played outside, and then we went home. We were even provided gas masks to wear because of the sulfur that was deposited in the air by the volcano. I remember walking to school and smelling the distinct odor of the sulfur in the air, like day old boiled eggs. The news of a possible volcanic eruption was like old news. We continued to perform the eruption drills and they became a normal routine, like the Pledge of
It was still dark when my sisters and I were woken up. My mom got us girls dressed and ready while my dad loaded up our old Chrysler Cordoba. It was 6 am when our journey began, and I remember looking back in the direction of the volcano and seeing the giant mushroom cloud in the sky. The first leg of the evacuation was a 55 mile drive to Subic Bay Naval Station in Olongapo City, where we were initially told that we would only remain for several days. Then, approximately 48 hours after our evacuation, almost as sudden as the move itself, we encountered the first full eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Along with the arrival of Typhoon Yunya and 7 inches of monsoon showers , we faced frequent earth tremors and the effects of total darkness on June 15, 1991. This event was known as “Black Saturday.” The suspension of the debris in the atmosphere had caused all sunlight to be blocked, turning day into pitch black night. We were confined to our quarters, which was a three bedroom house in military housing that we shared with two other families. Oh, and there was no furniture. There were frequent power outages and a shortage of drinkable water. The ground was covered in a thick blanket of white, dusty