Because of the success of Pacific Partnership 2022, the Solomon Islands authorities invited the return of USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) for PP24-1, the place the workforce supported the Solomon Islands’ medical infrastructure by augmenting native clinics and the Nationwide Referral Hospital (NRH) in the course of the 2023 Pacific Video games.
“It’s a mission that gives companies that Solomon Islanders can see, really feel and contact its advantages,” mentioned Manasseh Sogavere, Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands. “It’s a mission that each the individuals of Solomon Islands and United States of America may be happy with.”
Mercy’s commanding officer believes that the precedent set by final 12 months’s go to to the Solomon Islands demonstrated the advantages multilateral missions like Pacific Partnership current in enhancing partnerships and constructing mutual understanding with allied nations.
“Mercy being requested by the Solomon Islands to return again in the course of the Pacific Video games is a real testomony to the worth of the multinational cooperation between the USA, Solomon Islands and our associate nations,” mentioned Capt. Jeffery Feinberg, commanding officer of USNS Mercy. “To be again within the Solomon Islands with Mercy is such a surreal feeling.”
Pacific Partnership fosters enduring friendship and cooperation amongst many countries. Throughout the mission cease, personnel from the U.S. Navy, Air Drive, Marine Corps and Army together with navy personnel from Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and New Zealand collaborated with Solomon Island professionals to boost capabilities throughout the engineering, humanitarian help catastrophe aid, and host nation outreach traces of effort.
“These are my first surgical procedures I’ve carried out in English, so it’s onerous for me, nevertheless it grew to become an excellent expertise, a really particular expertise,” mentioned Lt. Ken Ikegami, a health care provider within the Japan Maritime Self-Protection Drive. “The remedy of sufferers in several nations has been my dream since I used to be a highschool scholar, and this was my dream coming true, so it was very particular.”
PP24-1 is a unifying mission bringing allies and companions collectively to assist strengthen relationships, bolster host nation capability and enhance efforts to organize for humanitarian disasters.
All through their 2-week keep within the Solomon Islands, PP24-1 forces performed greater than 352 medical engagements, together with 2082 dental procedures. The optometry workforce distributed greater than 3163 prescription glasses and 3780 pairs of sun shades. Furthermore, aboard USNS Mercy, a multinational workforce of surgeons accomplished 94 surgical procedures, whereas 14 surgical procedures had been carried out alongside Solomon Island medical doctors at Nationwide Referral Hospital.
The mission’s humanitarian help and catastrophe response leads performed one workshop, which included the Solomon Islands Nationwide Catastrophe Administration Workplace and first responders, and Seabees from Amphibious Building Battalion 1 (ACB 1) assigned to PP24-1 led an engineering mission at NRH.
Whereas within the Solomon Islands, PP24-1 medical personnel augmented medical assist to the Pacific Video games, offering 150 event-days of protection throughout 17 websites, a lot of which ran from morning to nighttime. The workforce delivered roughly 60,000 kilos of ice provided by Mercy to forestall and deal with warmth stress accidents. The medical workforce additionally boosted the capability of the Australian safety forces by offering 14 days of steady position II/III surgical protection to a 500-person multinational safety drive supporting the Pacific Video games.
Along with occasions in Honiara and Guadalcanal Province, Pacific Partnership actions included 15 programs and multispecialty medical skilled exchanges in Gizo, Auki, and NRH and 10 live shows carried out by the PP24-1 Band, comprised of members from the U.S. Pacific Fleet and Royal Australian Navy bands.
Now in its nineteenth iteration, Pacific Partnership is the biggest annual multinational humanitarian help and catastrophe aid preparedness mission performed within the Indo-Pacific. Pacific Partnership works collaboratively with host and associate nations to boost regional interoperability and catastrophe response capabilities, enhance safety and stability within the area, and foster new and enduring friendships within the Indo-Pacific.
For extra details about Pacific Partnership and USNS Mercy, go to www.fb.com/pacificpartnership, www.fb.com/USNSMERCY, or https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/ships/mercy
