Hogan Spartans: A Navy Legacy at the USS Midway
Hogan Spartans at the USS Midway: Honoring a Navy Legacy in San Diego
For Rudy Jandoc and Gloria Arzaga — children of Retired US Navy veterans — walking the decks of the USS Midway was more than a reunion stop. It was a tribute to the Filipino-American fathers who served.
Day 3 of the Hogan Spartans reunion cruise brought the group to one of San Diego's most iconic landmarks — the USS Midway Museum, a decommissioned aircraft carrier now permanently moored along the Embarcadero. For a group bound by decades of shared history in Vallejo, California, the visit carried a meaning that went far beyond tourism.
Two members of the group, Rudy Jandoc and Gloria Arzaga, are the children of Retired US Navy veterans. Their fathers, like thousands of Filipino men before them, were part of a generation that built their lives — and their families' futures — around service to the United States Navy. Walking those steel decks together, surrounded by classmates and lifelong friends, was an act of remembrance as much as celebration.
💡 Did You Know?
Vallejo, California has one of the highest concentrations of Filipino Americans in the United States — a legacy directly tied to the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Generations of Filipino Navy families settled in Vallejo, making the city a heartbeat of the Filipino-American diaspora in the Bay Area. The Hogan Spartans alumni community is a living product of that legacy.
🇵🇠Tagalog Word of the Day
Dangal (dang-gal) — noun. Honor, dignity, or prestige. Dangal is one of the highest values in Filipino culture — the kind of honor earned through sacrifice, service, and integrity. When a Filipino veteran serves his country with distinction, he carries his family's dangal with him on every voyage.
Through the Decks: A Photo Journey
Glenn Pingol documented the group's tour in a series of photos that capture both the grandeur of the Midway and the warmth of lifelong friendships. Each frame tells part of the story.
A Navy Legacy Written in the Vallejo Story
The relationship between Filipinos and the United States Navy is one of the most defining chapters in Filipino-American history. Beginning in the early 1900s after the Philippines became a US territory, thousands of Filipino men were recruited into the Navy — often as stewards, cooks, and enlisted personnel — in numbers unlike any other immigrant group. Their dedication and service eventually opened a path to US citizenship, and many chose to settle their families near naval bases across the country.
For Vallejo, California, that meant something profound. The city grew around Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and with it came wave after wave of Filipino Navy families planting roots in Northern California. The children of those sailors grew up together, went to school together — many of them at Hogan High — and formed a community identity inseparable from that naval heritage.
Rudy Jandoc and Gloria Arzaga carried that weight with them through every exhibit, every aircraft on the flight deck, every corridor below the waterline. The USS Midway served from 1945 to 1992 — nearly half a century — and during much of that time, Filipino sailors were part of its crew. The ship is, in a very real sense, part of the Filipino-American story.
Day 3 of the Hogan Spartans Reunion Cruise
The San Diego visit was Day 3 of a reunion cruise organized by Hogan High alumni — a group that has stayed tightly connected across decades and distances. What began as a shared adolescence in East Vallejo has grown into a lifelong bond celebrated through gatherings like this one.
Photographer and contributor Glenn Pingol — himself a proud Hogan Spartan and UC Davis graduate — documented the day with his characteristic warmth and eye for the human moment. His photos capture not just the ship, but the spirit of the group: people who grew up together, who understand one another's families and histories, and who still find joy in simply being in the same place at the same time.
⚓ Filipino Americans & US Navy Service
Filipino Americans have served in the United States Navy since 1901, when the Philippines first came under American administration. By the 1970s, Filipino nationals and Filipino Americans made up an estimated 20% of the Navy's enlisted steward branch. The Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project estimates that over 250,000 Filipinos served under the US flag during World War II alone. Their service — and the families they built near US naval bases — seeded Filipino-American communities from Vallejo to San Diego to Virginia Beach.
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💡 Did You Know? — The Filipino Diaspora in San Diego
San Diego County is home to one of the largest Filipino-American populations in the United States, with an estimated 120,000+ Filipino Americans in the region. The presence of major naval installations — Naval Base San Diego, Camp Pendleton, and Naval Air Station North Island — has drawn generations of Filipino Navy families to Southern California, mirroring the same pattern that built the community in Vallejo. The USS Midway sits at the center of a city deeply shaped by Filipino-American service and sacrifice.
Love it! USS Midway was my Tito Maning's first ship when he joined the US Navy. Awesome. Thanks Glenn!
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