Pacific Partnership Gearing Up Social Media for Mission

As Pacific Partnership makes its way through Oceania over the next four months, social media will play a key role in telling the story of the annual, U.S. Pacific Fleet-sponsored humanitarian mission.

Set to begin later this month and conducted from USNS Richard E. Byrd, Pacific Partnership will travel to Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Tonga.

Through the Pacific Partnership blog, and with a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr (including a Flicrk group), and its portals on the Pacific Fleet and Navy websites, new audiences will be introduced to the mission and will have an opportunity to interact with the mission staff and participants.

Pacific Partnership works by, with and through host and partner nations, non-governmental organizations and other U.S. Government agencies to execute a variety of humanitarian civic assistance projects.

Thousands have benefitted from Pacific Partnership since its inception in 2006 when it operated from the hospital ship USNS Mercy, and was known as the Mercy Mission.

In addition to providing humanitarian civic assistance, missions such as Pacific Partnership provide valuable opportunities to build relationships and to learn from mission partners. These types of experiences also help ensure a smoother assimilation of U.S. military support into disaster and civil relief efforts when the need arises.