On April 19, 1948, Captain Jose V. Andrada received the rank of commodore, the first Filipino naval officer to receive a star rank and the first Flag Officer-in-Command (FOIC) of the postwar Philippine Navy. Born in Capiz on February 3, 1906, Andrada first took a course in the University of the Philippines College of Engineering prior to studying in the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
After graduating in 1930, the fourth Filipino to do so at the time, Lieutenant Andrada would be appointed as head of the Offshore Patrol (OSP) by President Manuel Quezon in 1938, relieving Major Rafael Ramos of the Philippine Nautical School. During his tenure, Andrada initiated a volunteer service program, attracting fellow Annapolis graduates to the new naval institution. The first batch of OSP graduates finished on February 9, 1939, marking the formal beginning of the Offshore Patrol.
By March of the same year, the OSP received its first torpedo boat. The 55-foot Thornycroft coastal motor boat became designated as Q-1, the letter "Q" supposedly referring to "Quest." Following this by June 1939 was the 65-foot torpedo boat designated as the flagship Q-111 Luzon. It was said that President Quezon sought to provide an impression that the Philippines was making good progress in its naval acquisitions, allowing the change in the naming convention by skipping numbers 2 to 110, when in reality the OSP had less than 10 ships to work with (excluding the 6-ship American torpedo boat squadron sent from Pearl Harbor by 1941). Meanwhile, critics believed that the burgeoning fleet could not deter an enemy naval offensive.
When American naval assets withdrew from the Philippines, the Filipino OSP proved to be the last line of naval defense in the opening phase of the Second World War. While the entire fleet was scuttled by 1942, at least one of them would be repurposed by the Japanese. Q-111 Luzon would be recommissioned as IJN Patrol Boat No. 114 on April 12, 1943.
Just prior to the Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Captain Andrada was assigned to the Coast Artillery Battalion. He would reassume the leadership of the OSP through appointment of President Sergio Osmeña, Sr. He would remain in office during the transition to the Philippine Naval Patrol (PNP) in October 1947.
The Naval Station Jose Andrada, serving as headquarters of the Philippine Navy, was named in his honor. The Jose Andrada-class patrol craft, the first of which would be commissioned in 1990, was also named after him. Learn more about the Pacific War:
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