The San Diego-based ship carried Marines and Navy “Seabees” from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Filipino-American sailors make up 11% of the USS Comstock’s crew. This opportunity to return home to provide aid to the people of the Philippines is a morale builder for the crew, which is currently on an extended Western Pacific Deployment.

Culinary Specialist Ilao visited his hometown of Baguio City in December, and is thrilled to be back so soon. I just got back from the Philippines, but this time it was a different feeling going back," he says.  “This time I got to go back in my uniform, and that meant a lot to me. It was a chance for me to help my fellow countrymen out. The visit is more meaningful.” Pictured above, Ilao hands out treats to Filipino children living at a relocation and evacuation center in Legazpi.

Ilao is in charge of delivering pre-made meals for the hardworking crew of the USS Comstock, who are working all day with soldiers from the AFP and local volunteers on programs such as engineering projects to repair, improve, and clean schools and evacuation centers; and free health clinics at six evacuation sites for citizens who are still homeless after the typhoons of late 2006.

One of the sites Culinary Specialist Ilao visited in the Legazpi area with the U.S. and Philippine Sailors and Marines was the Tyson Relocation Center, a place where families whose homes had been destroyed or made unlivable can find shelter until their homes are rebuilt.  For some area residents, the possessions they managed to bring with  them to the relocation center are all they have left.

“When I delivered the lunchboxes to Tyson, nobody really wanted to eat," relates Ilao.  “(All of the U.S. Sailors) who were working there were more worried about the kids.  I had a bag of M&Ms that I individually passed out to each child so they could get one. They don’t get to have little things like that often, so it meant a lot to them."