From the Archives

Master Sgt. Jeff Holbrook stood at attention Thursday in the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas, an area he describes as a disarmingly beautiful place that can quickly turn ugly with violence.

The big "Connie" spat puffs of white smoke as her four engines roared into life. Soon the plane was racing over the concrete runway and she became airborne, climbing into the dawn sky.

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in June 1991, a typhoon drenched the massive ash plume, spawning a gray sludge that swamped much of the Philippines’ northernmost island, Luzon.

An airport that once hosted the largest U.S. Air Force base in the Philippines is negotiating to host commercial flights to North America, a move welcomed by veterans who have settled in the country.

In late August 1991, Joseph Snodgrass pulled a brazen jail break from his cell on Clark Air Base. Awaiting trial for conspiring to murder his wife eight months earlier, the hulking Air Force sergeant feigned illness, jumped a guard and held a butter knife to his throat.

History was bittersweet at the Okinawa reversion ceremony here Monday morning at the Nihon Budokan. For the older members of the 10,000 Japanese in attendance the dignified affair recalled memories of a bloody battle 27 years ago.