An escape from the searing, rust-laden hotbed that was their country. Such were the thoughts embedded in the minds of Filipinos who yearned to follow the tens of thousands of American servicemen who had boarded cruisers bound for “the States” after the surrender of Japan.
1955. A young Filipino who idolized Americans — from the GIs who recaptured his hometown, to Frank Sinatra and his role in the film “Anchors Aweigh” — yearned to travel abroad. To some, happiness lay far away from this island country, across an endless ocean of dreams and perceptions and amid the cherry red Mustangs, movie debuts, and white picket fences of America. Like thousands of other young Filipinos of the time, Ray scrambled from Sangley Point on the island of Luzon to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard. Seven and a half years later, he found himself in an enviable position, a place of privilege where many of the thousands of other Filipino “swabbees” wished to be, as a steward to the Group Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Base in New York City.
Ray Burdeos, born in the Philippines, was a college student at Mapua Institute of Technology in Manila when he joined the U.S. Coast Guard in 1955. Upon retirement after 23 years of service, he was a recipient of the Commandant Letter of Commendation and Coast Guard Achievement Medal.
Ray worked and earned a degree in Bachelor of Science in Health Care Sciences, major in Health Care Administration from University of Texas. He was formerly manager of the Department of Defense Outpatient Clinic at St. Mary’s Hospital in Galveston, Texas.
He currently resides in Galveston, Texas.
At the post, Ray was in the lowest category of jobs but with implied influence being a steward of the group commander. With absolute trust, Ray had access to the Captain’s quarters, and, unbeknownst to the commander himself, to his only daughter.
Kim Bullard, some say, was endowed with three remarkable qualities: the charm and grace of royalty; a genuine, universal curiosity un-stifled by custom, common perception nor tradition; and her natural looks, which only served to enhance her gracious manner. The latter hooked Ray. The former allowed him to go willingly. When Ozzie and Harriet provided the ideal family role models, and young, blue-eyed, freckled-face girls drooled over Fabian and Tab Hunter, Ms. Kim took a liking to and, eventually, fell in love with a mess hall steward who sharply resembled the “enemy” of the South Pacific twenty years earlier.
Ramon Ricardo Burdeos
Screenwriter