LAST OUTPOST | Soldiers endure loneliness, spartan living to guard remote islands in Spratlys

From InterAksyon (Nov 25): LAST OUTPOST | Soldiers endure loneliness, spartan living to guard remote islands in Spratlys

AYUNGIN REEF, Kalayaan Island Group, Philippines – This place is probably the loneliest place a soldier can be assigned to. There is no land, only limitless water, like living in your very own water world. The seven-man team stationed here on one of the Philippine-occupied areas in what is more popularly known as the Spratlys face a unique set-up: their entire military detachment is a broken warship. Back in the 1990s, the Armed Forces of the Philippines intentionally ran its Landing Transport Ship 57 (BRP Sierra Madre) aground on this reef, located 176 nautical miles from mainland Palawan, so the country can claim it as its own territory. Now, the ship is rusty, full of holes and is a very dangerous place for anyone to live in..... The soldiers--five Marines and two Navy personnel--spend most of their days fishing, listening to the transistor radio or just patrolling the ship. There are no cellphone signals, no cable TV.  That’s why it came as a surprise to the soldiers when their commanding officer, Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban, arrived at their detachment Thursday afternoon with a tub of ice cream. Marooned for months with nothing to eat but fish, the soldiers’ faces light up like little children when the tub of ice cream was placed before their ocean-weary eyes. Soldiers had the same reaction in other Philippine-claimed islands that Sabban visited..... Unknown to many, the military’s Western Command has deployed teams of Marines and Navy personnel to nine of the Philippine-claimed islands and reefs to ensure that no foreign country will encroach on them. While the soldiers face no immediate threat of attack, they still have to brave the unpredictable weather, the extreme loneliness and boredom all in the name of duty..... Sabban says that the presence of Marines in the disputed islands is significant: it is meant to let other countries know that these are Philippine-occupied areas. “We are not confrontational; what we’d like to do is to let others know that this is Philippine territory. We have to warn them that this is Philippine territory and they should respect our sovereignty,” he says.....

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/48889/last-outpost--soldiers-endure-loneliness-spartan-living-to-guard-remote-islands-in-spratlys