Charles L. Clifford

Gerald V. (Vic) Hurley (1898–1978) was a record-breaking athlete, adventurer, expert on the Philippine Islands, military officer, and prolific author. His published books include a non-fiction series relating to the Philippine Islands in the first third of the twentieth century, military histories, screenplays, articles and works of fiction.

Hurley was born in St. Joseph, Missouri on October 6, 1898. He grew up and graduated from high school in the remote Eastern Washington community of Davenport and was introduced to the broader world through his Army service in World War I. He enlisted in the Army in 1916 and saw action with one of the first field artillery units sent overseas. He and his unit were engaged in every major battle of the war including Verdun and Belleau Wood. He suffered a lifelong chronic illness resulting from a mustard gas attack.

At the University of Washington, on his return from service in the early 1920s, he became a track star, setting records, some of which were not broken until 1984. He competed against Charley Paddock, the American Olympic star, in the early 1920s. Hurley was an All-American track star, placing fifth in the 1921 NCAA championships in the 100-yard dash. His record at UW was finally bested by Phil Shinnick after 42 years. In 1923 he was recruited by the Illinois Athletic Club for their track team and was employed by American Express in Chicago for two years.

In 1925 he traveled to the Philippine Islands, earning passage as a stoker on a steamship. He and a partner began a coconut plantation in the jungle interior of Mindanao Island in 1926. His partner soon abandoned him and left him, a solitary white man, in the jungle, to pursue this enterprise which after a year failed. When he recovered his health he stayed in Zamboanga for another seven years as an expatriate manager for American companies. While there he married. During that time he became an honorary Third Lieutenant in the Philippine Constabulary, the Philippine national police force. Hurley and his wife returned to the U.S. in 1935.

On the recommendation of a college friend, Max Miller—the author of I Cover the Waterfront (1933), Hurley recounted his plantation adventure and its failure in Southeast of Zamboanga, (1935) . Subsequently he described his life as an American expatriate in the tiny occidental enclave in Zamboanga, Men in Sun Helmets (1936), his experience with the native Islamic Filipinos, the Moros, and their history in Swish of the Kris (1938), and the genesis and history of the Philippine Constabulary in Jungle Patrol . All of Hurley’s Philippine books were published by E. P. Dutton.

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