The Bar That Was Shipped From the Philippines to Florida

So, I was telling you this week about officers’ clubs, because they’re featured in my Hunt for Jack Reacher thriller, Jack and Joe. Well, there was one officers’ club I mentioned briefly that I wanted to tell you more about.

Did you know that in Pensacola, Florida, you can see an actual bar from the Philippines, that was used during the Korean War? The Cubi Bar was at a U.S. Naval air station on a jungle-covered piece of land in the Philippines, built in 1951. Building the air station in itself was a huge ordeal and involved relocating an entire town and cutting a mountain in half! The U.S. decided it was worth it because an air station in the Philippines would be a critical link for the U.S. Navy. The station was also used in the Vietnam War and Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield.

Anyway, the building of that air station included construction of an officers’ club, like so many air stations did at the time, both internationally and domestically. Over the years, the officers’ club, called Cubi Point, became filled with squadron memorabilia. But when the Senate of the Philippines required the U.S. to withdraw from all of its facilities in the Philippines in 1991, the U.S. wanted to salvage the Cubi Point Officers’ Club. The contents of the club were sent to Pensacola, Florida, where they now comprise the Cubi Bar Café in the National Museum of Naval Aviation. How cool is that?!

Cubi Bar Cafe

The decor and layout of the café is a replica of the cafe in the Philippines. The plaques around the room are the actual plaques from the officers’ club at Cubi Point in the Philippines.

Just for fun, here’s the menu. You’ll notice a lot of the menu items are a tribute to aviation, like the “Barrel Roll” and the “Whirly Bird.”

If I were to put the Cubi Bar Cafe in one of my books, what kind of scene would you imagine would happen there? Press the Comment button below to let me know your ideas!