Nurses in uniform
JEFFREY Legazpi runs into former nursing classmate at the Univeristy of Santo Tomas (UST) Felix Manuel in Times Square. Photo by Elton Lugay
NEW YORK—Times Square was a sea of white last month 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.
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.”
HOSPITAL corpsman Eileen Dueno. Photo by Elton Lugay
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.
Jeffrey Legazpi, a surgical technologist, said being in the Navy has been his “childhood dream.”
In 2004, he came to the US and worked as a nurse in Florida after graduating from the University of Santo Tomas. Three years later, he joined the Navy to fulfill his dream.
“Since the US military doesn’t recognize my Philippine degree, I didn’t enter the service as a nurse practitioner,” he said. Instead, he studied to be a surgical technologist and underwent “extensive” military training.
“It was extensive. They crash you down but build you up physically, mentally to become a new person, a soldier. I was about to give up the first couple of nights during the eight-week boot camp but thinking that I am a married man with one child, I pursued it with strong determination,” he said.
Jeffrey echoed Eileen when he said one of the biggest challenges is being away a lot from family. Though the pay is not that much, he said the benefits are rewarding.
“When people see you in uniform walking around, they thank you for your service, and that means a lot to me, it goes a long way,” he said. The FilAm
