BREAKING _ 🇺🇲 U.S. Marine REUNITED with long-lost DAUGHTER in the Philippines 🇵🇭 after 39 years!

Every summer That place you're thinking of The music you remember From when you were in love Let yourself heal It's easy to feel Let yourself heal It's easy to feel Running along the beaches That once belonged to you A trail of broken memories Here on the Lear and Blair snog, this is the story of the marine who came back and cleaned his daughter. So we've just come to Jeff's hotel where he's staying in Olangapo. We're about to do a quick interview with him and then we're going to reunite him with his long-lost daughter Anjali. Stay tuned here on the Lear and Blair snog. Yeah, she has an apartment. It's not the grey one, but the whitish one right over there. And that's where she's staying right now. That one? Yeah, right there. Far out. So, stone's throw away. You're so close to your daughter. Yes, I am. We're going to surprise her in the next one hour. This former US Marine had come back to the Philippines. Stay tuned for one of the most emotional reunions you've ever seen on the Lear and Blair snog. It was time to interview Jeff to find out the backstory as to what actually happened back in the day. But in my excitement, I had forgotten Jeff was in the back of the car. Yeah, so it took a while to save up, get ready and prepare. It's not near as bad as I thought though. And you've also been helping Anjali with the children's schooling and dentistry and things like that? Yeah, yeah. Whatever they've needed. So you stepped up? Pardon me? You stepped up to the plate and started helping the family back in the Philippines? It's my family. It's my job. Imagine after 39 years, meeting your daughter for the very first time. So Jeff's telling me they used to run up and back down, up to Upper Maui and down to Lower Maui. Maui's Marine Amphibious Unit. Every day, up and down, as he was in the Marines. Fun memories, Jeff? It was a bit gruelling, but yeah, it was kind of nice. Rough. Yeah, yeah. What time in the morning did you have to get up and do that? Oh, I think we got up at 5. Oh man. Yeah, we went down at 6 and got to the park at 6.30, I believe. It was the afternoon running uphill in the afternoon heat that was gruelling, really gruelling. It's all overgrown now. There's a big white building behind there. Can we just go and have a look at that? Do you remember this before? No, I don't, but probably wasn't in such a disrepair either. Yeah, yeah. All in there and all behind. Let's just have a look at this one. Before interviewing Jeff, he wanted to see where the barracks were, back in his day. Standard, they're all like this. Standard configuration for all of them, I believe. Wow, look at it. There was no air conditioning, it was readily hot. Oh wow. We just had the ventilation, because they had both windows open to each side where the breeze came through. That's it. This could have housed thousands of people. I'm not sure why they let it go. It wasn't when it was in... Well, when I was here it was in fine shape and it would have been... You were here in mid-80s? Yeah, I was here in 84, 85. I mean, it's still pretty good though, the roofs are still standing. All of this, what you can see, was testament to the US military's ability to build these Quonset huts, sturdy and strong, in the middle of the jungle. This former marine was going back in time. So I'm taking Jeff through the old Quonset huts here in Upper Maui camp. He's obviously saying the same thing as me, it's such a waste that it was just left to get taken over by the jungle. I mean, you can't even see them from the road and there's hundreds on each side of the road and you just can't see them. Can you imagine what the feeling must have been like for Jeff, seeing his old barracks looking like this? And you're here to surprise a long-lost daughter. Yes. Anjali. Can you give me a bit of a background story as to how you're meeting your daughter after 39 years? She went through Father Founded, I believe, and got a DNA kit and it matched... See, I never had the DNA done before, so it matched with my son because he had it done. We got really close on January 8th that we found out, you know, that they verified everything. And then once they did that, then I actually contacted her on my birthday. So January 8th, it was the 9th here, it was the 8th back there, and I got a hold of her. What year was this? It was three years ago, so that would have been 21. So you were in the US military as a marine. Yes. Based here at Upper Maui, Lower Maui? Yeah, yeah, we worked down at the Lower Maui, that's where our guns and stuff were, and then we slept and lived up here, yes. Okay, and that was when? During 83, 84? It was 84, 85. How old were you back then? I was 19 the first time we came here, and I turned 20, you know, the second or third time we came here. What was the name of the ship? It was the USS Duluth. Right. It was an LPD landing platform dock, I don't know what that means, but that's what it was. Good times, going into Olongapo on R&R. Take me back, what was it like back in the mid-80s there in Olongapo? Well, you'd go across the bridge, the old bridge, and that's where their sewage went at the time, so it was a bit foul. What was the name of the river called back then? You can say it on camera. Well, back then the nickname was Shit River. Shit River. Yeah, because of the sewage flowing through. And then as soon as you got over that bridge, then all of a sudden all hell broke loose, and you'd have all kinds of kids jumping on you, tugging on you, saying bye, bye, bye, and vendors and everything. It was just crazy. Oh, you thought you were prepped for it because the ones that had been there before kind of told you what was going to happen, but you were not prepped for it. It was crazy. It was just nuts. And then it was lit up back then down McSci-Sci Drive. Yeah, yeah. It was like Vegas. I mean, there was so much neon, and everything was either a hotel or a bar or something. What do you think happened in regards to Anjali coming about? Was that a relationship? Yeah, I'd only seen one girl when I was here, and then every time I came back I went and found her and seen her and stuff like that. But back then, you know, there's no cell phones, no real communication. You couldn't really… Keep in contact. Yeah, yeah. I mean, when I left here I was back on ship for another few months, and then finally, you know, I went back to Hawaii. Yeah. So it was just, there's really nothing you can do in that situation. You just don't know. Was it a shock when you found out that you had a child in the Philippines, or did you know something? Did she tell you she was pregnant, or…? She somehow got a landline call into me one time, and she did. She said she needed money because she was pregnant. Back in the 80s. Back in the 80s, and I'm not sure how she got the landline call in. So I was kind of shocked at that time, but the issue is the military at that time also said, oh, they will do this, warning, they just want your money, and so that's the first thing you assume. Saying they were pregnant, send money. Yeah, yeah. You know, can you give me money to help with the child, you know, I'm going to give birth. So then the first thing you think is like, oh, no. Could be a scam. Yeah, and so you don't believe it. Right. And so that's the last, I kind of really never thought about it again. And so, for nearly 37 years, Jeff was completely and totally unaware that he had fathered a daughter in the Philippines named Anjali. Sam came up on the DNA test. He had taken an ancestry DNA test. Yeah, and they contacted him. How did he approach you? What did he say to you? He goes, there's somebody contacting me saying that, you know, they're trying to get a hold of you because you might have a, you know, a daughter in the Philippines. How is it like the feeling of you being, you know, you have a lost daughter in the Philippines that you never seen for 30, 90 years? I obviously made a wrong decision way back when not believing what was going on. So now I kind of feel it's my duty to help out and to do whatever I can to see that her and my grandkids do okay. Wow, it's gonna be. How is the feeling now that you're an hour away of meeting Anjali for the first time? Crazy. I just can't. I can't wait. Actually, it's gonna be a lot of fun. It was even stranger having that motel room that she was, I could just go up on the roof and see where she was staying. So that was nuts. And then she texted me just before that saying, I have a feeling you're really close. Oh, really? Yeah. She can sense it. That's what she said. So I was like, okay, nope, nope. I'm in, I'm in, I'm in Taipei. I wake up, I woke up this morning. I'm like excited, nervous at the same time. I'm like, it's like me meeting my father for the first time. I wonder what Anjali is feeling right now. Emotionally, how has it been over the past couple of years? I see a little bit of a, in your eyes. It's been alright. I wanted to get over here for a while. I just couldn't make it. But if I could have, I would have went, you know, pretty much right after she called or I got a hold of her. Yeah, no, it's very emotional. It's been hard for you knowing that she's in the Philippines and it's been 39 years. She grew up. I missed a lot, yeah. But I'll try to make it up. See what I can do. We're going to close that 39-year gap today, Jeff. Looking forward to it, yeah. You're a good man coming all the way. Thank you, sir. Anjali believed her father was coming in the next couple of days. We had told her we would just like to ask her for an interview, just to get her background story before she met him. In the next couple of days. Remember, she had been chatting to her father, Jeff, for the past three years. But she had never met him in person. Anjali briefly told us what happened to her growing up. My adoptive parents don't really want me to know that I'm only adopted. And she said that, no, you're my child. You came from me. I gave birth to you. So Anjali had been adopted. They love me so much. Maybe that's why. Do not pray for an easy life. Be like Anjali and pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. Anjali believes we're conducting the interview at a more quieter location. Of course, I'm happy. I really don't understand. But I'm so happy. Because not all Americans accept American fathers. It's true. That's why I'm so happy. Of course, you're 36 years old, right? I'm 36 years old. Now you're 39. So it's been three years since you communicated. And now was the time. And there was Jeff in the background, coming out from the old building. But I'm very happy. And I don't know, it's a mixed emotion really. I really don't know how to explain the feeling. But maybe don't explain the feeling to me. Explain the feeling to your father if you look over your shoulder. I told you. I love you. After 39 years. You got a grenade. Surprise. I've got allergies. You're really crying. No, I'm not. Oh my God. Marines don't cry. Congratulations, guys. You're going to have a very, very Merry Christmas. I kind of feel whole now. Like there was something always missing. Incomplete. Yes. Same. You're crying again. I am. Allergy.