Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Diego Union-Tribune
June 10, 2008 The Navy has temporarily halted flights to and from the San Diego-based hospital ship Mercy after one of its helicopters took gunfire in the Philippines yesterday, Navy officials said.
The Mercy has been anchored near the city of Cotabato as part of Pacific Partnership 2008, the first stop on the ship's five-country, five-month mission in the Western Pacific Ocean.
Yesterday, an MH-60 Seahawk helicopter went to pick up 11 passengers about 50 miles inland, said Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Navy spokesman. When the helicopter returned to the ship, two bullet holes were found in the tail section.
No one heard the bullets hit the helicopter, Davis said. The aircraft is from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21, based at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado.
Cotabato is in the Philippines' southern province of Mindanao, home to communist and Islamic rebels.
– S.L.
June 10, 2008 The Navy has temporarily halted flights to and from the San Diego-based hospital ship Mercy after one of its helicopters took gunfire in the Philippines yesterday, Navy officials said.
The Mercy has been anchored near the city of Cotabato as part of Pacific Partnership 2008, the first stop on the ship's five-country, five-month mission in the Western Pacific Ocean.
Yesterday, an MH-60 Seahawk helicopter went to pick up 11 passengers about 50 miles inland, said Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Navy spokesman. When the helicopter returned to the ship, two bullet holes were found in the tail section.
No one heard the bullets hit the helicopter, Davis said. The aircraft is from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21, based at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado.
Cotabato is in the Philippines' southern province of Mindanao, home to communist and Islamic rebels.
– S.L.