Among the salient events of General Douglas MacArthur Week are an eyewitness account of how it was to live in Mindanao during the Japanese occupation from 1941-1945, and the operations of Filipino and American guerrillas in Mindanao during that period.
The Cagayan de Oro Historical and Cultural Commission has coordinated two lectures on these interesting subjects, both to be held at the Centrio Mall Activity Center.
Guerrilla Daughter by Virginia Hansen Holmes.
The first, “Guerrilla Daughter” is scheduled for 10AM Tuesday, 14 March 2017, and dwells on the book by Virginia Hansen Holmes, daughter of guerrilla Cpl. Charles Hansen, who was the logistics head for the Surigao sector of the 10th Military District of the United States Forces in the Philippines (USFIP) under Col. Wendell Fertig. Her two elder brothers were guerrillas under Fertig as well.
Ms. Holmes, who is President of the American Guerrillas of Mindanao Descendants Group (AGOM), will share her personal experience of the time her family spent in Lanao, Misamis Oriental and Surigao from the late 1930s through WWII.
Hansen family photo, Manila, late 1935.
Her Dad operated a sawmill in Lanao while her three older brothers attended Ateneo de Cagayan (present day Xavier University) while her sister attended Lourdes Academy (now Lourdes College). The Hansen family later moved to northern Surigao where her father worked as Plant Superintendent of a gold mine.
Her second lecture scheduled on Wednesday, 15 March 2017 at 10:30AM of the same venue, will discuss the book Wendell Fertig and his Guerrilla Forces in the Philippines (Fighting the Japanese Occupation 1942-1945) written by her husband Kent Holmes.
Wendell Ferrig and His Guerrillas in the Philippines.
The book is an in-depth study of Col Wendell Fertig and the challenges he had to overcome organizing and leading the 10th Military District in Mindanao and contains valuable research material for those interested in historical details about the guerrilla resistance movement in Mindanao during WWII — SPYRON submarine missions, radio communications, coast watcher stations, etc.
Kent Holmes is a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer and a member of CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service. He served overseas for 15 years in six countries, including two years in Laos supervising paramilitary operations in northwest Laos. He lives in Falls Church, Virginia.
One American family of heroes belatedly received several Philippine government medals for World War II service. L-R Henry Hansen; sister Virginia Hansen Holmes, author of Guerrilla Daughter; Defense Sec. Delfin N. Lorenzana, then head of the Office of Veterans Affairs at the Phil embassy & Kent Holmes. Posthumous awards were presented to Charles Hansen (father) and his other son, Rudyard.
The Hansen Lecture Series is sponsored by Ayala Centrio Mall and coordinated by Hiscom with the Department of Education Cagayan de Oro City Division, the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office Field Service Extension Office (PVAO-FSEO) Region 10 and Veterans Federation of the Philippines Region 10. (RMB)
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