MANILA : Back to the Philippines
American warships and Marines will arrive Thursday off Red Beach on the southern Philippine island of Leyte to mark the 50th anniversary of the landings that began the liberation of the island nation, then a U.S. territory, from Japanese forces in World War II.
About 4,000 service personnel aboard the helicopter carrier Belleau Wood and four other American vessels will participate in the ceremonies marking the invasion that brought Gen. Douglas MacArthur and U.S. forces back to the Philippines in 1944, an event made famous in a news photo of the general wading ashore.
In smaller ceremonies earlier in the week, marking the wartime arrival of U.S. scout units that guided in the larger forces, Filipino veterans in their 70s met American delegations in emotional reunions.
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