Air Force medics join USNS Mercy mission

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Deborah VanNierop
  • Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii --  Twenty eight Air Force medical personnel from across the Pacific region are currently spending some time on the open sea as they participate in Pacific Partnership 2008. Alongside other public health/preventive medicine professionals from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. Public Health Service, Military Sealift Command boarded the USNS Mercy for a four-month humanitarian civic assistance mission throughout the Pacific. 

Once all of the participants are picked up from various regions throughout the Pacific, the crew will total around 800, said Navy Capt. Robert Wiley, the ship's master. "Mercy is a fully functioning, fully equipped, fully staffed hospital that we can take just about anywhere in the world anytime it's needed," said Captain Wiley. "One of the most remarkable things about the Mercy is how it allows so many different organizations and groups to come together and work. I think that's the theme of this mission - civic partnership." 

According to Navy Capt. W.A. Kearns III, USNS Mercy commander, the ship will travel to the Philippines, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia. 

Preparing for Pacific Partnership 2008 took the efforts of individuals from all of the services and across the Pacific to ensure nothing was overlooked. "Thirteenth Air Force provided the Air Force piece to the joint planning and coordinated the sourcing of individual requirements. We also facilitated the base-level support for individual deployment preparation," said Air Force Maj. Randall Ivall, 13th Air Force Chief, Contingency Operations and Plans at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. 

The floating hospital is equipped with 100 patient beds, three operating rooms, one emergency room, a four-bed intensive care unit and an isolations ward for this mission which will conclude in September. 

"We want to help out those countries in medically underserved regions...and we want to be a good neighbor," said Captain Kearns.