U.S. Pacific Fleet announced plans March 3 for its next annual humanitarian civic assistance mission, Pacific Partnership 2009, which is slated to conduct engineering projects and provide medical, dental, and veterinary assistance to Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands.
Pacific Partnership 2009 is the fourth in the series of humanitarian missions that work in concert with partner nations, non-governmental organizations and other U.S. Government agencies.
This year’s mission will be based on board USS Dubuque (LPD 8), an Austin-class amphibious transport dock ship home ported in San Diego. USS Dubuque’s unique ability to transport and expeditiously unload heavy equipment and supplies make it the ideal platform from which to conduct engineering projects and provide humanitarian assistance.
The ship will carry humanitarian civic assistance equipment and a robust team of preventive medicine personnel, veterinarians, medical and dental teams who will conduct medical and civic action programs ashore.
The Pacific Partnership campaign originated from unprecedented international disaster response for countries involved in the 2004 Asia tsunami.
Humanitarian and civic campaigns such as Pacific Partnership help to improve the lives of the people in which it comes in contact. They also build regional capacity by strengthening relationships and improving security cooperation between national governments, militaries, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations during disaster relief operations.
Collaborative efforts such as Pacific Partnership support U.S. Pacific Command’s (USPACOM) focus on partnership, readiness, and presence. USPACOM maintains a constant presence throughout the Asia-Pacific region and works with its friends and allies to be better prepared to face challenges and crisis together.
See Pacific Fleet Announces Pacific Partnership 2009.
I believe construction of such projects requires knowledge of engineering and management principles and business procedures, economics, and human behavior.
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ReplyDeleteDuring these types of engineering projects, our trained military engineers work closely with the host nation well in advance, not only to identify needs that might be appropriately addressed given the manpower, time associated with the mission and material available locally, but too, to develop a sound engineering plan. In keeping with U.S. Pacific Command’s emphasis on a whole-of-government approach and collaboration with partners, each project is selected and developed by working closely with the U.S. Embassy, agencies such as United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and local officials to ensure the project meets local needs.
As you may or may not have heard, the participation of USS Dubuque, which as noted in the blog post above, was scheduled to serve as the flagship for the Pacific Partnership mission, has been canceled as a precautionary measure, due to one confirmed case of H1N1 influenza onboard the ship while several other crew members have demonstrated flu-like symptoms and are receiving treatment. Other options for Pacific Partnership are currently being explored.