Olongapo Liberty — Robert Leininger

1969: Nixon is president. Demonstrations against the Vietnam War rock America. Hippies and flower power are in. 7,000 miles away, aboard the heavy cruiser, USS Saint Paul, CA-73, Charlie Baggs must make a decision: stay in the United States Navy, or get out. As Baggs struggles to make a decision that will set the course for the remainder of his life, the "Fighting Saint" pulls into Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines. A hundred yards from the base, across a narrow river, lies the town of Olongapo, a raucous "liberty town" teeming with bargirls, pickpockets, shoe shine boys, thieves, "mama-sans," and drug pushers. Baggs and other sailors in "OE Division" aboard ship swarm into Olongapo to blow off steam in perhaps the single most infamous place ever created by the collision of sailors, bargirls, beer, and money. Baggs has but five days to decide what his future will be. Will the USS Saint Paul head back to the war zone with him, or without him? And will the next few days he spends in Olongapo's silken hands affect that decision?