Navy Capt. Kristina Morocco begins a surgery aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy off the coast of Koror, Palau, Dec. 27, 2023. (Gavin Arnoldhendershot/U.S. Navy)
A U.S. Navy hospital ship completed a 12-day visit to Micronesia earlier this week, concluding the planned portion of an annual Indo-Pacific tour designed to deliver aid and prepare island nations for natural disasters.
Led by the USNS Mercy, Pacific Partnership culminated with a visit to Chuuk, a cluster of island chains that make up Micronesia’s most populous state.
While Chuuk was the last planned stop in the four-month mission, Pacific Partnership won’t officially be over until the ship returns to its homeport of San Diego in February, mission spokeswoman Navy Lt. Cmdr. Cheryl Collins said by email Thursday.
The Mercy’s time in Chuuk was spent rendering medical care and hosting public health engagements with the local community, according to a Tuesday news release from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
“Pacific Partnership is symbolic of the unity and spirit of cooperation that embodies the U.S.-FSM relationship, and our shared goal of an open, connected, prosperous, resilient, and secure Indo-Pacific,” Jennifer Johnson, U.S. ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia, said in the release.
While in Chuuk, teams provided more than 2,200 dental procedures and 82 surgeries aboard the Mercy, and optometrists distributed more than 3,000 pairs of prescription glasses and sunglasses.
The hospital ship USNS Mercy anchors off Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia, Jan. 18, 2024. (Jacob Woitzel/U.S. Navy)
Chuuk Gov. Alexander Narruhn, during Saturday’s closing ceremony, said he hoped the “special friendship” between Micronesia and the Pacific Partnership teams “will span decades, islands and nations,” according to the release.
During the community engagements, U.S. Navy environmental health officers taught islanders about methods for food storage and pest control to “improve overall health and prevent common illnesses,” the news release said.
The mission kicked off Oct. 10 when the Mercy left its homeport of San Diego for stops in the Marshall and Solomon islands, Palau and Micronesia.
Participants included nearly 1,500 personnel from the U.S. and partner nations, including Australia, Chile, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Logistics Group Western Pacific said in a Nov. 18 news release.
They provided islanders with nearly 12,000 dental procedures, 410 surgeries, 748 medical engagements and more than 25,000 glasses and sunglasses, Collins said.
The mission achieved a historic first during its visit to the Marshall Islands, when Pacific Partnership members sailed aboard the Marshallese hospital ship RMIS Liwatoon Mour for a four-day tuberculosis eradication campaign in Aur Atoll, according to another logistics group’s release.
It marked the first time in the mission’s 20-year history that participants operated from a host nation’s hospital ship, U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a Nov. 14 news release.
Pacific Partnership grew from the U.S. response to the 9.1-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of South and Southeast Asia in December 2004. The mission has evolved to focus more on building relationships between nations rather than providing direct medical care, according to the Navy.
