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THE STORY BEHIND THE F-86D DISPLAY IN NICHOLS AIR BASE (VILLAMOR AIR BASE)

It was 1967 and the Philippine Air Force (PAF) fleet of 20 North American F-86D "Dogs" Night Interceptors was depleted due to the complexities in maintaining the platform. In coordination with the Joint United States Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG) arrangements were made for the transfer of around eight ( mothballed F-86D “Sabre Dog” of the Taiwanese Air Force's stocks to beef up the PAF's inventory... Taiwan had earlier retired its F-86Ds due to various issues and problems.

Eight ( Philippine Air Force qualified fighter pilots from the 8th All Weather Fighter Intercept Squadron “Vampire” of the 5th Fighter Wing were sent (Including then LT ARMANDO GARCIA a member of the Philippine Military Academy class of 1960) to Taiwan to fetch the additional F-86Ds... Each of the mothballed Taiwanese "Dogs" conducted a single test-flight to check for any discrepancies before official acceptance prior to its flight to the Philippines... Afterwards the selected eight ( F-86Ds were flown by the Filipino fighter pilots to the Philippines.

As the F-86Ds began their final approach to Basa air Base, Lt. Armando Garcia's F-86D aircraft suddenly suffered an afterburner system control failure which made his final approach difficult... As he skillfully maintained control of his mount from an altitude of around 500 feet to touchdown by maintaining the required airspeed of 200 knots for landing... To further complicate his situation the landing gear failed to lock and he was forced to activate the emergency landing gear control... Despite the troubles Lt. Garcia was able to land his "Dog" smoothly, to the relief of his 8th Tactical Fighter Squadron Commander CAPTAIN RUDY RATCLIFFE (A former Aviation Cadet and member of the Philippine Air Force Flying School class of 1955A)... Captain Ratcliffe was already worried about Lt. Garcia, who was late for quite some time and was thought to have crashed.

Afterwards Lt. Armando Garcia's F-86D was flown to Nichols Air Base (Its second and final flight with the PAF) to undergo depot maintenance in the hope it can be brought to operational service, but unfortunately the decision had been made to retire the "Dogs" from Philippine Air Force service in 1968... And so it was decided that Lt. Garcia's problematic F-86D was to be placed on display at one of Nichols Air Base's main gate (Gate 1). It was later transferred and the said aircraft is now proudly displayed at the Aircraft Park of the Air Force Museum in Villamor Air Base.

#InPhoto

Lt. Armando Garcia's problematic F-86D with tail number 140 displayed at the main gate (Gate-1) of then Nichols Air Base (Villamor Air Base) in Pasay City. The circle entering Terminal 3 is where this Dog was formerly displayed.

During the late 1970’s to the 1980’s, you will see Santa Claus in the cockpit of this F-86D “Dog” every December.

Google Fanboys na mga feeling military experts and war generals are not aware of this!

(With thanks to GENERAL ARMANDO GARCIA a prominent fighter pilot in the 1960s to the 1970s, he also flew the T-33 and F-5A/B)

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