Nieves Fernandez

This is a story that must be told.
Listen you all as it unfolds.
The story of a school teacher
that became a guerrilla leader.
--
Nieves Fernandez was her name.
Killing Japanese became her game.
A school teacher from the Philippines.
She blew a lot of Japs to smithereens.
--
Just teaching her school in Tacloban.
Minding her own when the war began.
When they threatened to kill her students,
she killed them instead, in abundance.
--
Using courage and using her skills,
soon she had over 200 kills.
Alone and dressed in black attire.
She became known as a real spitfire.
--
She could kill fast and then learned swifter.
She was known as the Silent Killer.
With her bolo and make-shift shogun
She wouldn’t stop until it was done.
--
Alone in the jungle with bare feet,
she’d sneak up on you really discreet.
The Japs put a bounty on her head.
Ten-thousand peso, alive or dead.
--
That’s a lot of money for the poor.
They really could use it, that’s for sure.
But Filipinos are not swallow.
Fernandez was a folk hero.
--
Her soldiers were known as The Gas Pipe Gang.
Many prisoners by them were sprang.
When the US soldiers did arrive.
She showed them how to survive.
--
For two and a half years she fought hard.
Had some close calls and even got scarred.
Most places around Tacloban were clear
by 1944 when the US appeared.
--
After the war she dropped out of sight.
Maybe sick of killing, tired of fight.
She saw the Philippines once more strive.
Liberation, September 1, 1945.

Photo acquired from: Bing: Free to Share and Use

Howdy y’all. It’s me, ninong7 aka UJ aka John. Just a short intro about myself. I am a Texan that has retired in the Philippines. I moved to the Philippines with my wife back in May 2010. I am retired from the US Air Force. The music I like is mostly Classic Country and Classic Rock. I guess you could say that I am “Classic”. I play dominoes when I can find someone that will play, I play chess, cribbage, spades, hearts, Empire Builder, Rail Baron, Acquire and a few other games. I like to write poems and stories (although pretty novice) and I love learning about history, just about any history. I’m at home on my computer a lot but if I could afford to, I’d be traveling and documenting my travels to post in my blog. I hope to get to know a lot of you through PeakD and Discord.