FOR THE RED, WHITE AND BLUE — Gas Turbine System Senior Chief Petty Officer Arnold Libongco, a Filipino-American US naval officer, talks to media about his role in the ‘USS John S. McCain’ over the weekend. (Jonas Reyes)
Subic Bay Freeport — “Fortune favors the brave.”
This is the motto of the “USS John S. McCain,” an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, participating in the 20th annual Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Philippines 2014 held at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
And one of those brave souls on the ship is Gas Turbine System Senior Chief Petty Officer Arnold Libongco, a native of San Mateo, Rizal – one of the 20 Filipinos aboard USS John S. McCaine, handling the engineering department.
PROUD OF HIS ROOTS
Libongco is proud of his heritage and still speaks the Filipino language fluently.
He and the other Filipino-Americans on board the ship still savor Filipino dishes.
Libongco said that once a week, the ship’s chef prepares Filipino food. And the most popular of those is the Adobo, which even American sailors have loved to eat.
PINOY AT HEART
Proud to be part of the CARAT that will enable him to train together with Filipino soldiers, Libongco said any Filipino-American sailor inside the ship would say that they fight to the teeth just to defend the Philippines from insurgencies to ensure that the Filipinos would preserve his freedom.
American servicemen, he said, wants to learn to fight tenaciously despite the lack of numbers. “This is something that the American servicemen aboard the USS John S. McCain and the USS Ashland want to learn.”
“The unit level of the Philippine Marines, I think, is pretty small and that aspect is something that our guys could learn from. We need to experience the hand-to-hand training techniques, which we know we could learn from the Philippine Marines,” said Lieutenant Commander Dan Duhan of USS Ashland.
“Above that, the tenacity of the Filipinos when it comes to defending their country is incomparable to any nationality.”
FIL-AM SOLDIERS
The biggest reward of any Filipino-American whose ship is part of any bilateral exercises held in the Philippines is a chance to visit their families while their ship is docked in Subic Bay Freeport.
http://www.mb.com.ph/fil-ams-stand-proud-in-us-navy/
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