Shortly after we published our article in the Oct. 27 issue about the Filipino marines stationed on a forsaken boat in the South China Sea, Typhoon Haiyan devastated the central Philippines. In the wake of the storm it became clear that thousands of Filipinos had died. The photographer Ashley Gilberston and I were naturally concerned about the guys we lived with on that boat, known as the Sierra Madre. Judging from the number of questions we got after the storm, so were a lot of the magazine’s readers.
The good news, if there can be any in a situation like this, is that the marines who were stationed on the Sierra Madre are fine. The center of the storm passed well to the north of Ayungin Shoal, where the Sierra Madre sits, and Haiyan also spared the rest of the Kalayaan Island Group, which includes the civilian island of Pag-asa. The detachment of marines that we lived with on the Sierra Madre — Staff Sgt. Joey Loresto, Sgt. Roy Yanto and the others — rotated out shortly after the typhoon passed through.