Pacific Partnership

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For hospital ships, deployments bring hope and partnering — but will they survive budget cuts?

By Gidget Fuentes on April 5, 2013 3rd Fleet, 7th Fleet, Life at Sea, Medical, Navy, Pacific Partnership

The hospital ship Mercy got a unique recognition last month when the National Conflict Resolution Center gave the ship its National Peacemaker Award for bringing medical and humanitarian aid overseas, including annual “Pacific Partnership” missions in 2008, 2010 and 2012. It was the first time the San Diego-based center gave the award to a “thing” and not a person. “The amount of humanitarian aid that everybody on the ship provides – really as a team – they really reach out around the world,” Lisa Cole-Jones, the center’s fund development program manager, told us. The ship’s crew was elated. “The more…

After delay, Mercy leaves fired up for a mission of help

By Gidget Fuentes on May 4, 2012 Community relations, Deployment, Disaster response, Medical, Navy, Pacific Partnership

With the “global force for good” in mind, some 400 military service members, many of them trained and skilled in the medical and health professions, boarded the hospital ship Mercy at San Diego Naval Base, Calif, on the morning of May 1 for a mission to Southeast Asia. Joining them that day were scores of civilians, volunteers of all ages from universities, nongovernmental organizations and charities who embarked on the ship for “Pacific Partnership 2012,” the seventh iteration of the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s humanitarian and civic action program that grew from the widespread disaster of the 2004 tsunami that struck…

Browsing: Pacific Partnership