Members of the NOQC Charlie Alumni Association Inc. (NCAAI) and the National ROTC Alumni Association, Navy chapter, jointly held their Christmas party at the Philippine Navy Officers Club recently. Alumni of both organizations — across numbered classes, across time zones, across all ages — showed how elated they were, along with their wives, in this first-ever holiday celebration in the Navy’s long history.

NOQC stands for Naval Officers Qualification Course, while ROTC for Reserve Officers Training Course —either course the sole prerequisite for becoming a Navy commissioned officer in the active service.

The festivity moved the needle 40 or 50 years back, which explained the euphoria, nostalgia, even a bit of hysteria that characterized this fellowship among comrades-in-arms who once ruled the Navy and defended the flag and the seas against external threats.

Mostly well into their senior years, the retired officers bonded again with one another, exchanging pleasantries, renewing their professional kinship, sharing notes about their experiences, untold exploits if you will. Descriptively, their coming together was not just about Christmas but more a reunion so-called Navy “Charlies.”

The PNOC or officers club where the party was held is a traditional venue for such occasions and ceremonies involving naval officers. Hence, this was a conglomeration of Navy officers of various levels of achievement. It was also a thanksgiving of sorts since a handful of them were in their 90s but they could still drive home alone.

On that note, at least a couple of officers, one a colonel from the Philippine Marines and another from the Philippine Navy, who belonged to the 42nd and 46th NOQC Charlie classes, respectively, were proof of former budget secretary Benjamin Diokno’s fear of the “big elephant in the room” or the specter of a “fiscal collapse.”

Indeed, if retired military officers all live to their 90s, the state might find it beyond difficult to sustain their pensions and retirement benefits, but that’s a matter for another time.

Flag and star ranks who came were aplenty, more so Navy captains or the colonel equivalent in the Army, who could no longer rise up the hierarchy due to the compulsory retirement age of 56. Nevertheless, for purposes of retirement, a law mandates their promotion to the next higher rank, thus they receive a higher pension as well.

Not a few commodores, brigadier generals, and rear admirals donated substantial cash amounts for the raffle. This was consistent with the notion, not only in the Navy but in the Armed Forces of the Philippines in general, that “rank has its own privilege.” Since the flag and star ranks receive a higher pension, they felt it incumbent upon themselves to “give back,” if doing so would add more fun and fellowship among former naval officers.

The best thing about this holiday celebration was that no politician was in sight, nor was there any monetary contribution from them. In other words, in the context of the massive and ever pervasive corruption in high places, this event was “germ free.”

Suffice it to say that the coming together of officers molded the proverbial “Charlie” way and who had all undergone the dreaded rites of passage as “dumbguards” was quite a feat. After all, they were recruited fresh from their baccalaureate degrees back in their 20s and to think that those in attendance came from all NOQC classes, this fellowship could be said to be providential.

There must have been a Divine Order, no less. Welcome back!