US Navy ships stop to assist Filipino fishermen, Australian sailors in distress

[Boats]

US Navy ships stop to assist Filipino fishermen, Australian sailors in distress
By: ALEX WILSON AND JEREMY STILLWAGNER STARS AND STRIPES • August 23, 2023
Re: https://www.stripes.com/branches/nav...-11133423.html

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Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson provided food and water to a group of Filipino fishermen in the South China Sea, Aug. 14, 2023. (Jamaal Lidell/U.S. Navy)

The U.S. Navy provided food and fuel to mariners in distress on the high seas this month in separate incidents on two seas, according to the service.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson on Aug. 14 fed a group of Philippine fishermen in the South China Sea who needed food and water as they made their way home.

The Ralph Johnson spotted fishermen aboard a small vessel signaling for help, according to a Monday press release from Task Force 71/Destroyer Squadron 15.

The fishermen were “waving their arms back and forth,” 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Luka Bakic told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday.

Petty Officer 1st Class Aileen Adriano, of Ilocos Norte, Philippines, translated for her shipmates and the fishermen in Tagalog and English.

“I’ve been in the Navy for 9 years, and this is the first time I’ve been able to use my language to help out,” Adriano said in the release. “It felt really good to be a part of this.”

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A fast rescue boat from the USNS Millinocket heads out to assist sailors in distress near Darwin, Australia, Aug. 8, 2023. (U.S. Navy)

The group was on its way home to the Philippines but didn’t have enough food or water to make the journey safely, he BAKIC? said. The ship provided a loaf of bread, several gallons of water and four “hot plates” – fully prepared meals with meatloaf, vegetables and rice.

In an unrelated incident Aug. 8, the USNS Millinocket, an expeditionary fast-transport vessel, provided fuel to a leisure craft stranded on the Timor Sea off northern Australia, according to Indo-Pacific Command.

The Millinocket, underway in support of the Talisman Sabre exercise, detoured to a distress signal coming from a boat 35 miles northeast of Darwin, said the Millinocket’s master, civilian mariner Capt. Erwin Lao, in an Aug. 21 news release.

The Australian Harbor Patrol picked up the distress call but the Millinocket, just four miles from the stranded boat, responded, according to the release. Three civilian mariners in a fast rescue boat from the Millinocket delivered fuel and the transport stood by until Australian authorities arrived.

The five people aboard the distressed vessel were stranded for only a few hours, the release said.

INDOPACOM did not respond Wednesday to an email from Stars and Stripes seeking further information.
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About the writer(s):

Alex Wilson covers the U.S. Navy and other services from Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. Originally from Knoxville, Tenn., he holds a journalism degree from the University of North Florida. He previously covered crime and the military in Key West, Fla., and business in Jacksonville, Fla.
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Jeremy Stillwagner is a reporter and photographer at Yokota Air Base, Japan, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2018. He is a Defense Information School alumnus and a former radio personality for AFN Tokyo.
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