Serving Where Her Story Began: U.S. Navy Reserve Capt. Returns to the Philippines during Pacific Partnership 2026

“I can still see my face crying, ‘Who are these Americans?’” Sulatan said.

Sulatan, a lively fixture of Pacific Partnership 2026 (PP26)’s medical line of effort who is rarely seen without a smile, vividly recalls her teacher talking about how Americans and Filipinos helped each other to survive during the war, and being so struck that she even “went home and read about it more.”

Those stories have stayed with her in her journeys as a service member from Europe to Southeast Asia over the years. A Filipino American nurse practitioner and senior nurse executive assigned to Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF) 150 - Alpha at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Sulatan has now dedicated 28 years of her life to military service.

During PP26, her medical expertise and personal connection to the Philippines allows her to support the mission while giving back to her native home.

“This is my fourth year participating in Pacific Partnership, but this is the first time I’ve been able to come back here,” said Sulatan. “To me, it means a lot because my roots are here. Even just hearing my dialect being spoken everywhere, I’m like, ‘Oh, OK, I’m really home.’ The food and just the warmth of the people, it means so much.”

Sulatan was born in 1969 in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, on the Philippine island of Mindanao. One of six children, she was raised by a mother who taught home economics and a father who worked in business.

“I remember we were very poor,” Sulatan reminisced. “I had to fetch water from the river, bring it back to the house and use it to wash the dishes. I even learned how to take a shower with just one gallon of water because I didn’t want to go back to the river to fetch more.”

Despite this, her parents were determined that their six children would pursue higher education. Her mother eventually went abroad to work as an au pair, sending all of her earnings back home so Sulatan and her five siblings could finish college.

“Our parents always told us every time we eat, no one is getting married in this family until you finish college,” said Sulatan. “So we knew that we had to go to college.”

Sulatan earned her nursing degree in the Philippines before moving to the United States in 1992 and beginning to build a life there with her husband. She joined the Navy Reserve in 1998 while working multiple jobs, raising a baby and continuing her education. After advancing to Hospital Corpsman 1st Class and earning her master’s degree as a family nurse practitioner, she commissioned through the Hospital Corpsman (HM) to Bachelors of Science in Nursing program, expanding the ways she could care for service members, veterans and communities around the world.

“I'm very thankful that my job is all about taking care of people, taking care of patients, young sailors and young officers, because I think it goes a long way,” said Sulatan. “If I had to do it all over again, I would still do it the same way.”

Today, Sulatan lives in Kona, Hawaii, and works for the Department of Veteran Affairs, where she cares for veterans, including those experiencing mental health challenges. In uniform, she continues to serve as a Navy Reserve nurse practitioner and senior medical leader. That path has now brought her back to the Philippines through Pacific Partnership.

“To me, Pacific Partnership means a lot because of the partnerships and the relationships we are establishing with people,” Sulatan said.

For Sulatan, building relationships as a U.S. service member with the local Filipino community is part of what makes humanitarian work and her military service meaningful.

“To me, doing humanitarian work is the best job in the military, because you’re really making an impact,” Sulatan said. “And getting to experience the culture of these people and meeting new people.”

Returning to the Philippines has given Sulatan a chance to share the wealth of medical knowledge she has gained since her career began in the Philippines. After earning her first master’s degree in 2007, she completed a doctorate and earned a certification as a nurse practitioner. She later earned a second master’s degree through the Naval War College, and her third master’s degree in public health from National University in San Diego.

“Coming here, I’m like, ‘Oh, I can finally serve my people too,’” Sulatan said.

She hopes the mental health knowledge she’s shared during Pacific Partnership will help local medical professionals continue caring for their communities after the mission ends.

“I hope they will continue to grow, that they will continue to be able to take care of their people, because their people are their best assets,” Sulatan said. “If you have a healthy nation physically, then you have a healthier economy because these people are able to work and serve as well.”

Sulatan continues to have that same drive to serve that she first felt as a third grader and says she does not plan to retire anytime soon. She plans to serve as long as the U.S. Navy will have her.

“Until they put me on a wheelchair and say, ma'am, you gotta go, you can't even do your squats anymore,” Sulatan exclaimed jokingly.

She plans to continue broadening her education and her service in the U.S. Navy. Most of all, she wants to share her knowledge and service with the communities the military has brought her to, particularly focusing on others mental health. For now, Pacific Partnership is one of the many ways she can share her vast experience, particularly in mental health.

“There is no limit to the possibilities on how to serve as well,” she said. “...because I know people who wake up every day and want to serve too… and I want to inspire them that service is really, you know, what makes our life more meaningful.”

Now in its 22nd iteration, the Pacific Partnership series is the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster management preparedness mission conducted in the region. Pacific Partnership works collaboratively with host and partner nations to enhance regional interoperability and disaster response capabilities, increase security in the region, and foster new and enduring friendships in the Indo-Pacific.

For more information about Pacific Partnership visit www.facebook.com/pacificpartnership, www.instagram.com/pacific_partnership/ or https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/PacificPartnership.

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