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Navy preparing humanitarian mission
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Posted on Feb 15 2006
WASHINGTON—Preparations are underway to send the U.S. Naval hospital ship USNS Mercy on a humanitarian mission to the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia this spring, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet announced at a meeting of the Asia Society here yesterday.
“Sending this uniquely capable ship with a multi-specialized medical team is one way to demonstrate our commitment to the Asia-Pacific region, and to working together with our friends, partners and the regional community,” said Adm. Gary Roughead.
The deployment, expected to last five months, is being coordinated with several nations and will be carried out in conjunction with non-governmental relief organizations.
A number of military and civilian agencies are planning the myriad details that go into a months-long mission of assorted medical, dental and civic-action programs to provide focused humanitarian assistance to nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
Specific locations for the ship’s relief operations will be announced at a later date.
Mercy is uniquely capable of supporting medical and humanitarian assistance needs and can rapidly respond to a range of situations on short notice. Last year, Mercy performed a similar mission following the December 2004 tsunami that struck Southeast Asia. That deployment resulted in the treatment of more than 9,500 patients and 19,512 medical procedures being performed in Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.
For this deployment, Mercy is being configured with special medical equipment and a robust multi-specialized medical team of uniformed and civilian health care providers to provide a range of services ashore as well as on board the ship.
The San Diego-homeported ship can support various services such as casualty reception, optometry, physical therapy, burn care, and radiological, laboratory and dental services. (PR)
