JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM – U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) is scheduled to arrive at Pearl Harbor May 9 in support of Pacific Partnership 2012.
Throughout the 2012 Pacific Partnership mission, the 894-foot Mercy will serve as a platform from which U.S. and partner nation militaries and non-governmental organizations will coordinate and carry out humanitarian and civic activities in each country.
Pacific Partnership 2012 is led by three different element commanders: Navy Capt. James Morgan, mission commander for Pacific Partnership 2012, and commander of San Diego-based Destroyer Squadron Seven; Navy Capt. Timothy Hinman, commander of the medical treatment facility, who is responsible for the hospital and providing medical care aboard Mercy and ashore; and Capt. Jonathan Olmsted, Mercy’s civil service master who has overall responsibility for the ship and the safety of its nearly 1,000 passengers.
“Having participated in Pacific Partnership 2009, I know firsthand what an impact we have on the local populations we visit,” said Olmsted. “In building these relationships, we’ll have a better understanding of how multiple militaries and civilian organizations can work together to overcome the adversity of a natural disaster.”
Pacific Partnership 2012 is a four-and-a-half month humanitarian and civic assistance mission to Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia.
For more information check out the ship’s website: https://www.med.navy.mil/sites/usnsmercy/Pages/default.aspx
Report submitted by the US Navy