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USNS Mercy begins humanitarian mission (5/2)

The U.S. Military Sealift Command has issued the following news release concerning the SIU-crewed USNS Mercy. The release is dated May 1. Mercy is crewed by members of the SIU Government Services Division. Military Sealift Command hospital ship departs on humanitarian mission Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy departed San Diego today, beginning Pacific Partnership 2008 – a four-month humanitarian and civic-assistance mission to the Republic of the Philippines, Vietnam, the Federated States of Micronesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. Pacific Partnership is a mission that will take medical, dental, veterinary, engineering and civic assistance to Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific to build on relationships that have been developed during previous similar missions, such as the 2004 tsunami relief efforts, Mercy’s 2006 deployment and USS Peleliu’s 2007 mission. “Mercy is a fully operational, completely modern hospital that can go anywhere in the world, wherever and whenever there is a need,” said the ship’s civil service master Capt. Robert Wiley. “Every time we take this ship out, we get smarter about how to use it. We’ll be doing things this time that we didn’t even think were possible a few years ago.” Throughout the 2008 Pacific Partnership mission, the 894-foot-long Mercy will serve as a platform from which U.S. and foreign militaries and nongovernmental organizations will coordinate and carry out humanitarian and civic activities in each country. The mission will include personnel from MSC and other parts of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Public Health Service. MSC’s 67 civil service mariners embarked for the deployment are responsible for Mercy’s navigation, propulsion and engineering services. Because of Mercy’s size, it will not be able to pull pierside in any of the countries, so civil service mariners will also operate two 33-foot utility boats that will be used to ferry patients and mission personnel between ship and shore. The operation of these small boats, which can carry more than twice as many passengers as Mercy’s two embarked helicopters, will greatly increase the number of people who will benefit from the mission. Mercy is one of two U.S. Navy hospital ships owned and operated by MSC. Last summer, Mercy’s sister ship USNS Comfort deployed on a similar four-month humanitarian mission that treated more than 98,000 people in 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries. MSC operates approximately 110 noncombatant, civilian-crewed ships that strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world, move military cargo and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces, conduct specialized missions and replenish U.S. Navy ships at sea. ###