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Saipan-born Coast Guardsman helps in Tokelau mission
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Posted on Nov 02 2011
By Clarissa David
Reporter
Reporter
A Saipan-born member of the U.S. Coast Guard was part of a recent humanitarian mission that provided water to the drought-stricken island nation of Tokelau in the South Pacific.
Machinery technician Joseph D. Tenorio was on board U.S. Coast Guard cutter Walnut, a 225-foot seagoing buoy tender home-ported in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The U.S. Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand communicated with the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu early last month to discuss sending an assessment team and drinking water to Tokelau.
The Walnut transported about 36,000 gallons of drinking water to the Pacific island nation, benefiting some 1,500 residents who were affected by severe drought conditions.
The son of Lucy D. Tenorio and Anthony C. Tenorio, Joseph Tenorio graduated from Kagman High School in 2003 before joining the U.S. Coast Guard the following year.
The younger Tenorio said in an e-mail to Saipan Tribune that he just reported to the Walnut last July.
During the mission, Tenorio said he was part of the pump team that transferred water from the Walnut to their small barge then to the water tanks on Tokelau.
“It was a humbling feeling to help out the islanders on Tokelau being that I’m an islander myself,” he said.
Tenorio said Tokelau residents served them lunch that included coconut crab and fresh fish like palaksi, hanggon, and tataga during their four-day mission.
“The locals were very friendly like how islanders are,” added Tenorio.
Besides the Tokelau mission, the Walnut has been involved with several other missions in the last 10 years, including a six-month deployment to support the Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom in November 2002, providing assistance to the U.S. Army and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in recovering over 62,000 pounds of marine debris from the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, and deployment to the Gulf of Mexico for the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in May 2010.
