Dark Clouds over the Philippines 1898 to 1946: A Family Story

by Robert Joseph Dagney

The history of my family in the Philippines began in 1899 when my cousin James Aloysius McCarty came to the country as a private in the 20th Infantry Regiment as a supply clerk in Manila and spent two and a half years driving around the city delivering supplies to his regiment which was responsible for its security. He came to love the country and the people and was ashamed of his part in a colonial war and developed a devotion to the Holy Mother of Jesus Christ and often prayed in the many churches in Manila for the freedom of the Philippines. He returned home to Philadelphia got married and had five children, one of whom came to the Philippines in the US Navy in 1944, William Patrick who followed in the footstep of his father. My Uncle Patrick Comerford came to the Philippines November of 1944 in the transport ship the USS Lloyd that brought US combat soldiers to Ormoc, Mindoro and Luzon. During those sea battles, the kamikazes damaged and or sank over 20 American ships. His ship is credited for splashing four kamikazes.

The history of the MacArthur family in the Philippines began in 1898 when General Arthur MacArthur was one of the military leaders in the colonization of the country by the United States. He helped defeat the Philippine Liberation Army. His son General Douglas MacArthur was the Commander of the United States Army during the Second World War who was defeated by the Japanese Army in 1942 but who made a dramatic return in 1944 and freed the Philippines from the colonization of the Japanese. Father and son proved pivotal players in two of the most destructive periods of Philippine history, which in the end cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

383 pages, Paperback

Published September 22, 2024