In an earlier stop in the south, one of the Mercy’s four MH-60 Knighthawk support helicopters was hit by gunfire although it is not certain it was targeted or accidentally hit in a region where Muslim rebels and criminal gangs also are active.
Nobody was injured. The helicopter was grounded for safety checks and only one civic activity was canceled. The Mercy’s mission went on.
During a 2006 visit, the Mercy anchored far from southern Jolo Iisland, where Abu Sayyaf extremist militants are active, for security reasons. Police said at the time they had learned of a plan by the militants to bomb the ship, which was given 24-hour heavy security.
While many in predominantly Muslim Jolo still harbor bitter memories of bloody battles between their forefathers and US colonizers in the early 1900s, it was hard to find anyone in Calbayog who could recite similar fighting on Samar.
In 1901, Filipino insurgents attacked and killed several US occupation troops in Samar’s Balangiga township, near Calbayog. The so-called “Balangiga massacre” — and the heavy-handed US reprisal that followed — represented one of the lowest points in the history of the two nations, which would later become strong military allies.
After stopping in Manila for another medical mission yesterday, the Mercy will travel to Vietnam, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia, US Navy Captain James Rice said.
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