Times Square was a sea of white this week as about 6,000 sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen flocked town for the annual Fleet Week tradition.
The FilAm spoke to some of the Filipino servicemen. One of them was Eileen Dueno, a hospital corpsman in the Navy.
“For me Fleet Week is celebrating the Navy and showing the world that we are here and we’re here to protect,” she said. “There are service people out there protecting the country, fighting our freedom, it also shows people who we are and that there are girls in the military also.”
The Manila-born said she joined the service for its nursing program.
“Right now I’m just enlisted as a corpsman, but the training will help me to go to nursing school,” she said. “I want to make this a life career. It’s fun, the training wasn’t hard as long as you’re physically prepared. There’s a lot of running, push-ups and sit-ups.”
It is Eileen’s first time to New York. She has been stationed since 2008 in Norfolk, Virginia; her parents — both working as nurses — are in Culver City, California.
“Being Filipino, family always comes first,” she said. “The biggest challenge is being away from your family, and not being there for stuff like cousin’s birthdays, weddings and births of niece and nephew. Other than that, I think mentally and physically even being a Filipino is not a challenge because we know already how to work hard and we know how to follow rules. I think that’s what makes it easier especially being raised by both pure Filipino parents.”
She recalled how her parents had a difficult time letting her go to join the military.
“I think being from the Philippines and not knowing the Navy, they were very hesitant and they were supportive, but they didn’t understand why and so I have to make them understand,” she said. “Over the years they understood much better.”
Fleet Week was open to the public to witness the latest capabilities of the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard. It includes military demonstrations and displays as well as public visitation of the participating ships.
This year’s Fleet Week also commemorates the Bicentennial of the War of 1812 and “salutes all sailors and Marines who fought gallantly in that conflict,” says the press statement.
source: thefilam.net
