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MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO - “No electricity and no hot
water, you have to take cold showers every night,” said Capt. Neil
Bucken, supply officer for 12th Marine Corps District and a Staten
Island, N.Y., native.
Sounds like a typical deployment
story, but Bucken is not talking about a deployment, rather a
volunteer trip with All Hands Volunteers Organization to the
Philippines for 12 days to help with the relief efforts after the
earthquake and Super Typhoon Haiyan in late 2013.
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Capt. Neil Bucken, supply officer for 12th Marine Corps
District, talks with children during his volunteer trip with All
Hands Volunteers Organization to the Philippines for 12 days to help
with the relief efforts after the earthquake and Super Typhoon
Haiyan in late 2013. (Courtesy Photo)
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“I was raised with a service mindset, to serve others and
do good work,” said Bucken. “I don't think consciously I
have to go do volunteer work, I think it's just inherit in
me, because I was raised to do good things and want to help
people.”
Bucken had a life full of volunteering, his
high school even gave seniors Fridays off to volunteer. Last
year he volunteered to clean up after the natural disaster
of Hurricane Sandy.
After finding an organization to
volunteer with, Bucken brought his idea to the command for
their approval to leave work for two weeks to volunteer in
the Philippines.
“Last year I took my personal
leave, which was no big deal, but this year the command
offered to send me Permissive Temporary Assigned Duty
(PTAD), which I was really impressed with and really
appreciated it.”
Bucken not only received support
from the command, but his staff as well.
“I trusted
my staff, I'm very appreciative of my Marines and civilian
Marines for taking up the burden of work when I left, and I
trusted them enough so when I left we wouldn't drop the ball
with anything,” said Bucken.
Bucken had no clue what
to expect upon arrival to the Philippines, he just knew it
was his duty to help. What he realized was things were worse
than he expected.
“The entire island looked like a
big giant stomped on it,” said Bucken. “Everybody needed
some sort of help.”
The high winds ripped the roof
off homes leaving families to live in collapsing houses or
under trees for shelter. One of the duties Bucken performed
was to help make unsafe buildings tolerable by cutting
fallen trees off structures or cleaning rubbish out of
buildings.
The memory that stuck with him the most
was learning a maternity ward was outside of the hospital
under tents just feet away from where they stored body bags
of victims.
“The conditions were filthy. There were
bloodstains on some equipment and dirt everywhere. I
couldn't believe this was where women were giving birth,”
said Bucken.
Bucken and a team of about 20
volunteers cleaned out a basement full of sewage and mold to
create a new maternity ward for the hospital.
“We
created a clean sanitary maternity ward that they could use,
I was very proud to do it,” said Bucken. “We cleaned it to
such a point that if someone asked me to, I might have even
eaten off of it.”
The Filipino people were
appreciative of the efforts from the volunteers. After
working all day, families would invite the volunteers into
their homes and offer them the only thing they had,
Coca-Cola and bread.
“I'm not a multimillionaire,
but compared to what the people have there, I'm definitely
living like a king,” said Bucken.
Although most lost
everything they had, one of the uplifting things was they
were still smiling, explained Bucken. He knew there was hope
for the future there because it could be seen in the
children's eyes.
“There was a Filipino woman who told
me, ‘The Filipino people are like a piece of bamboo, when
the wind comes and the heavy rain comes, the bamboo gets
knocked down, but when the wind leaves and the rain stops,
the bamboo goes straight back up,'” said Bucken. “These
people get knocked down a lot, and they just get right back
up, they have no option.”
Bucken doesn't volunteer
all the time because there is still a mission to be
completed at 12th Marine Corps District, but he encourages
everyone to get out there at least once a year.
“My
only regret, besides not having a bigger tent, was I wished
I had another week. It was an amazing and interesting
experience,” said Bucken. “I think you learn a little bit
about yourself, because after this trip I am much more
appreciative of what I have here.”
By USMC Cpl. Rebecca Eller
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2014
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