Dear Children and Staff of Marden High School,
Hello, my name is Ashley Loftus, I am one of the 39 Royal Navy Officer Cadets currently onboard HMS Illustrious, meaning I am an Officer still in training. I joined the Navy in May 2013 after finishing college. I have been training at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth for the past few months and now I am onboard the Ship for the last part of my basic training before I become a fully fledged Officer.
My training onboard is made up of learning all about how the Ship works and how everyone works as teams to keep the ship running. A couple of weeks ago Prime Minister David Cameron redirected the ship to the Philippines to help people who need humanitarian aid, such as food, water and shelter, after Typhoon Haiyan hit the islands a few weeks ago. The other Officer Cadets and I are assisting the Ships Company in helping send food and supplies to the islanders. Some of us have been ashore to help rebuild schools and roads to help the local children.
It gives me great pleasure to be able to write this letter to you from onboard HMS Illustrious in the Philippines. Since our arrival on 25 November 2013, the Ship has helped over 2000 local Filipino families and children by supplying essential food and water.
Typhoon Haiyan was the largest typhoon on record to ever hit land and it caused wide spread damage across the Philippines region, affecting many small remote villages and towns, leaving many homeless and without food and water. Since taking on supplies in Singapore, including over half of all the rice stocks available (100 tons), HMS Illustrious has been able to deliver these crucial supplies, using the Merlin, Sea King and the Army Lynx helicopters. The helicopters, as well as carrying medics and engineers ashore, can also carry up to two tonnes of food and materials in a large bag underneath.
One of the major priorities has been to help rebuild the communities; many villages have had roofs destroyed and buildings flooded. Members of Ship’s Company have been sent ashore in small groups to rebuild roofs and clear pathways to ensure the schools, such as Bito-on Elementary School can continue educating the children. Once the children are back in school the parents can work on rebuilding their homes and livelihoods.
The stores teams onboard, made up of about forty people per day, are working around the clock preparing food bags and relief crates by the hundreds. The seven helicopters onboard are also working at full capacity to ensure maximum supplies can be sent to the teams on the ground, in order to deliver as much aid as possible. Aid has now made it to many different islands, such as Sicogon and Calagnaan. As I write this, teams are now surveying by land and air, a group of islands called the Semirara Islands.
Whilst in the Philippines HMS Illustrious has landed approximately 40 tonnes of aid per day to families and villages on local islands, with food bags to feed a family for two weeks. Tools, equipment and everything from tarpaulins to chainsaws have been landed to help the local people mend and rebuild their homes.
This task has shown us all what the Royal Navy is about. We are all here to help people who desperately need it. The Ship’s Company have all pulled together to send as much help to the islands as we can, even though many people from the Ship will not be home for Christmas. In spite of this, is all worth it to help the people of the Philippines after this very bad natural disaster.
If you want to know more about our task in the Philippines, HMS Illustrious, Officer Cadets or the Royal Navy as a whole, watch out for us on the news. You can also visit us on HYPERLINK “http://www.RoyalNavy.mod.uk” www.RoyalNavy.mod.uk, follow us on Twitter @1hmsillustrious or join the RN Facebook page for all of our up to date news and any information on the Royal Navy.
Yours faithfully,
The Officer Cadets onboard HMS ILLUSTRIOUS
