The Bluejacket's Manual

Few people read about the Philippine Insurrection in American History.

At the treaty ending the Spanish American War, the US purchased the

Philippine Islands. However, the Filipinos who fought alongside the Americans

against the Spanish felt betrayed and declared war against the occupying

American troops. From the period of early 1899 through 1908, the US

fought a protracted war said to have been more brutal than the fighting in

the Philippines during World War II.

The Bluejacket’s Manual deals with the experience of a young Navy sailor bound

by his duty to God, country and the Navy. Torn between the relationships

developed in the Philippines; he struggles to save his body and soul during

the period from 1898 to 1904.

Originally fighting the Spanish then alongside the Army against the

Insurrectos in the jungles of the north then facing the deadly Moros

from the islands in the south, the sailor works to subdue a hostile

people to America’s will.

The book is written in a manner that reflects the American

patriotism and moral activism of those times balanced against

Filipino aspirations.