The Montenegro Family A story of the Second World War and Liberation
Eighty years ago, today, on December 13, 1945, a U.S. military
plane took off from an airstrip outside of Dumaguete (on the island of Negros
in the Philippines) carrying members of the U.S. 13th AF Squadron along with 19
civilians, including my grandfather, Jose Antonio Montenegro, my
great-grandmother, Asuncion Abad Martinez, my grandfather’s sister, Maria
Antonia Morro, and her baby girl, Christina Morro. Though it was a violation of
U.S. regulations to be carrying civilian passengers, this was the era before
commercial air travel between Negros and Manila and there had been four years
of brutal hostilities.
According to the accident investigation report filed by the U.S.
military nine months later when the wreckage was finally found, weather
conditions had been poor and the plane was overloaded with passengers and
cargo. During the ascent, the plane suffered engine failure and tragically
crashed into Mt. Madalagan, 600 feet from the mountain top, taking all souls on
board. And also leaving my grandmother a single parent with three young
children, now financially dependent on her husband’s family, my Tita Angie and
Tito Jesus orphaned and irrevocably altering the lives of so many others in
places including the Philippines, Australia and even back home in Kentucky
where the AF 13th was based.
My grandfather was accompanying his mother-in-law back to Manila
after her weeks long visit to see her daughter and meet her grandchildren as
the war had kept them apart for four years.
The
brutal war in the Pacific Theatre had ended only a few months earlier in
September of 1945 and better days were supposed to be ahead. Today, as I do
often, I’m honoring the lives of all of the souls lost that day. And though I
never met my grandfather and great-grandmother, I love them deeply and will
always be grateful for the lives they lived.
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| This is my great-grandmother, Asuncion Abad Martinez, and my grandmother, Consuelo Montenegro (de Martinez). |
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| ‘The Survivors’ by Ernie Aboitiz possibly as it on a CD he gifted me) show my grandfather’s siblings with their mom, Lola Cecelia (seated center). The photo is not dated but was likely taken in the mid-1950’s. I need help putting names to all of the faces, but can recognize Tito Manuel, Tito Colas (Nicholas), Tito Chucci, Tito Nene (top row, left to right) and Tito Sones & Tita Mary (Aboitiz) seated bottom row left to right. |
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| This photo, taken by the U.S. military, must’ve been captured just days before the fatal accident that tragically claimed the lives of my grandfather, Jose Antonio Montenegro (center, top row), the sweet baby girl, Christina Morro (seated on the lap of the man on the right side of the bottom row), who was the daughter of my grandfather’s sister, Maria Antonia Morro, who was also killed along with my maternal great-grandmother, Asuncion Abad Martinez (not pictured). Others in this photo include many of my grandfather’s siblings, my paternal great-grandmother, Lola Cecelia Gonzalez Montenegro, the two military officers whom my grandfather had befriended, my dad as a little boy, Jose M. Montenegro (standing on the far right of the bottom row), my uncle, Miguel Montenegro (seated on the lap of the officer on the left), and finally my aunt as a young girl, Rose Marie Montenegro (standing on the left side of the bottom row). Historical Notes : |
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