He  left the Air Force after 12 years and is currently  a software engineer for the Boeing Company.

Howard can also be reached at:  howardpcarney@home.com or http://www.aristarchus.com

Date:  Mon, 13 Mar 2000
From: "Howard P. Carney" <howardpcarney@home.com>

The story for me:

One day I got a call from Capt Wilson stating he wanted me posted on the front gate to take pictures of the pandemonium down there.  I was 19.  We had intelligence that the strike was going to break.  I got there about an hour early and positioned myself on top of the main gate visitors center with my Cannon A1 and 70-210 telephoto.  There I set up my tripod and took 2 rolls of 200 ASA 35 slides.  I had a lot of people asking me for copies, but with the Marcos evacuation later, the strike pictures seemed to have been "forgotten".  Anyway, I got the slides developed in 1987 and they've been in a box ever since.  Thanks to Theodore C. Reid, Dale Bannick, and many other SP's at the gate who were either on horseback or helped me get the pictures.  I hope they can come to this site and enjoy the memories of one of the best brawls I ever saw in Angeles City.

By the way, a PAF guard fired two shots from his pistol into the air and rocks and bottles were everywhere.  There was a small explosion emanating from where the strikers had held out under a parachute structure with some sort of grease pit for cooking underneath.  The parachute collapsed into the grease sending a plume about 80 feet into the air.  The crowd then converged on this epicenter and tore it apart.  At that time it was like watch the crowd of around 2 or 3 thousand people just converge on about 20.  Not much hand to hand, but a lot of rock throwing and running toward the gate in my direction.  I had the perfect perch on top of the Visitor's Center, and was safe there.  I just feared getting nailed with a rock or bottle.  When it was over, I got down in time to snap the first GI's through the gate.  The pinto had nationals it it, but later a maroon GM sedan came through with 2 GI's inside.  After it was over, I walked to the Murphy's and had a sud.

Howard "Howie" Carney
2000