US Marine reunites with long-lost kin at landslide site
World News

GUINSAUGON, Philippines (AP) - US Marine Sgt. Kim Miller was digging for landslide survivors and had returned to his Navy ship anchored off the coast of Leyte island when word came: Get back, someone wants to see you.

He could hardly believe it: A Filipino relative he lost contact with long ago had recognised his face on TV.

A few days later, on a rainy Thursday, Miller, 23, from Orange County, California, embraced Atilano Susaya, his late grandfather's brother and one of his few surviving relatives in the Philippines.

"I was so happy. When they first told me, I couldn't believe it," a smiling Miller said. "My mom's dead, and my grandfather died while I was in Iraq. They first told me it was my grandfather waiting to see me. I thought, that can't be true. It's his brother. He, too, raised me."

Miller was born in Angeles city, next to the former US Air Force Base in Clark, to a Filipino mother and American father, who was serving here before the base closed in 1991.

Miller grew up in Angeles, then migrated to the United States in September 1999. Two months later, he joined the Marines. The last time he saw Susaya was eight years ago in the Philippines. "I kinda forgot about him already," Miller said. "But I kinda saw it coming. When I heard I was going to Leyte, I said, gosh, my mom's from there. Maybe I have some relatives there."

Ellie