Prostitution always was illegal
BY: AMSC Don Dickensheet, USN RET

Prostitution always was illegal in the PI, but the only time we were able to use it to our advantage was a few times back in the early 70s.

At the time I was on 7th fleet shore patrol there, things were still pretty much segregated. Blacks went to the "jungle" and white boys on Magasaysay. Well, since I was 6ft 2in, I would always end up in the jungle, it seemed, teamed up with a really Gung Ho Marine Staff Sgt. by the name of Campbell who was black.

Back in those days the brothers (young ones) all seemed to want to imitate Super Fly and the cool pimp act, so instead of going into bars, they would all stand on the street corners in their finest double knit outfits from Hong Kong and drink shake em up (cough syrup and royal true orange soda), anyway a real player or pimp don't pay fo no bitches or Hos, so at least once a week we would have to go to some hotel to smooth over culteral missunderstandings. They usually went somthing like this... Bother X talks some ho into coming up to his hotel room, but after drinking so much shake em up he nods out. Well the girls in the jungle weren't going with these guys since they were such handsome pimps, sooo since they couldnt get any money for their time, cause a real player doan pay no ho, they did the next best thing and helped themselves to his clothes and wallet and whatever else he had on him in hopes to hock it and make some cash.

Somtimes Brother X would get lucky and wake up before he had to walk back to the base wrapped in a bed sheet. Usually the girl would grab his ID card and when we would get there along with the Olongapo cops, the Olongapo cops would tell  Brother X to give the girl some money and she would then give him back his ID. That didn't fly with me and I would raise all kinds of hell with the cops.

"The ID card is US Government Property and if the girl wants money for tuning up Brother X, she must be a prostitute and is therefore not only guilty of trying to steal government property but also admitting to acts of prostitution and therefore should be arrested on the spot as prostitution was illegal", and you know what? if you were a real hard ass about it the girl would give back the ID and leave. The cops were bummed cause they were gonna shake the girl down after she got paid but I knew their law and helped Brother X out as he didnt have to pay fo his play.

I shoulda gotten an award of some sort, but hey, thats how it goes somtimes.