User:RightCowLeftCoast/Sandbox/Philippine Enlistment Program

The Philippine Enlistment Program was a recruitment program of the United States Navy. It recruited Filipino citizens into the United States Navy, without need of immigration papers. It existed from 1947, until 1992, as it was part of the Military Bases Agreement between the Philippines and the United States. It resulted in tens of thousands of Filipinos enlisting into the United States Navy before it ended. Those Filipinos, would naturalize, and bring their spouses to the United States, and make families, which contributed to the growth of the total Filipino American population.

Background
Filipino seaman during the manila galleon

Filipino seaman jumping ship, settling in the United States

Spanish American War into the Philippine American War

Filipinos being allowed to enlist in the United States Navy

Filipinos in the Navy during World War I & World War II

Philippine Independence

1947 Military Bases Agreement

For over 400 years Filipino mariners have been plying the worlds waters. Beginning in the 16th century, Spain become the dominate power in the middle and northern Philippines; connecting that territory to the rest of the Spanish Empire was the Manila Galleons which sailed between the Philippines and Mexico. To man those ships, Filipinos were impressed, and forced to work in harsh conditions. As early as the 16th Century, one of these places those Filipinos would sail to, was to Morro Bay, on their way to Acapulco, Mexico. Some of these Filipinos who were impressed into service did not return back to the Philippines. Some settled in New Spain. They created the seeds of a community in Acapulco. Others left, and moved elsewhere, including Louisiana, and Alta California. By the 19th century, Filipino seamen could be found sailing on American whaling ships.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, the United States was in war with Spain, and then with the First Philippine Republic, leading to the annexation and submission of the Philippines. In 1901, President William McKinley signed an executive order to allow 500 Filipinos to enlist in the U.S. Navy, beginning the history of Filipinos enlisting in the United States Navy. By the end of World War I, there were about 6,000 Filipinos in the Navy. From the signing of the executive order until World War I, Filipinos were able to serve in multiple rates; however, after that war, Filipinos were restricted to serving as messmen. This restriction of occupations did not apply to a Insular Force which was geographically limited to Guam and the Philippines. Due to their military service, Filipinos were able to become naturalized citizens of the United States. During World War II, Filipinos continued to serve in the Navy as stewards.

In 1946, the Philippines became an independent nation, ending its period as an American commonwealth. Just prior to independence, a rush of Filipinos attempted to enlist into the Navy. In 1947, the signing of the U.S.-Philippine Military Bases Agreement formalized Filipino enlistment in the U.S. Navy without immigrant credentials.

Program
Structure of program

The enlistment program created a situation unique to the Navy, which did not apply to the branches of the rest of the Armed Forces, which allowed for enlistment of male Filipino citizens living in the Philippines; all other branches required foreign nationals to first be green card holders before enlisting. Filipinos wanting to enlist into the Navy went through the process at one of two recruiting stations in the Philippines; one was at Sangley Point Naval Base, and the other was at Subic Bay Naval Base. In 1947, enlistment of Filipinos into the Navy was limited to 1,000; this limit was increased to 2,000 in 1954.

When taking their oath of enlistment, an insertion to the oath is made for Filipino enlistees, which states that their service does not deprive them of Philippine citizenship. Filipinos who enlisted into the Navy were later able to naturalize and become American citizens.

Impact
Number of Filipinos in the United States Navy, what rates they entered

Impact on population of Filipino Americans

1992 end

From 1946, until 1965, Filipino immigration to the United States was limited to 100 persons a year due to the Luce-Celler Act of 1946. However, Filipinos serving in the United States military were exempt from that limitation, leading to the establishment of Filipino American communities around naval bases. Due to the numerous Filipinos serving on navy ships, Filipino cuisine was not uncommon within navy galleys, and due to their camaraderie Filipino sailors within any given ship became known as the "Filipino Mafia".

Filipino American sailors remained restricted to the rating of steward, with 80% of the almost seventeen thousand Filipino American sailors being stewards; the tasks of the rate were seen as a systematic femenizing/emasculating of Filipinos on a ship's crew. In 1970, there were more Filipinos serving in the U.S. Navy than there were in the Philippine Navy; that same year, the number of Filipinos recruited into the United States Navy was reduced from the thousands per year down to 35 a month, while Filipinos re-enlistment rates were 95% (which made them eligible for naturalization). The rating restriction ended in 1973, after the U.S. Senate investigated civil rights issues in the U.S. Navy and opened all ratings to Filipino Americans. In 1974, there were 22,500 Filipinos serving in the Navy, an increase from 16,000 a decade prior; of those serving in 1974, nearly half were serving in rates other than steward. In the White House, Filipinos Navy stewards, continued to serve as valets after the restriction was lifted, as late as into the 1990s. A few years later, in 1976, there were over seventeen thousand Filipino Americans in the U.S. Navy, including just under a hundred officers.

In 1982, over a thousand candidates applied to the recruiting program, less than fifty were allowed to join the navy. In 1992, the U.S. Navy stopped recruiting Filipino nationals due to the end of the 1947 Military Bases Agreement; as of May 2019, there were a few Filipino American sailors who had enlisted through the program still on active duty. In some cases, the enlistment of a Filipino into the United States Navy, has led to family traditions of later generations serving in the military.