Updated at 9:41 a.m., Tuesday, September 11, 2007
USS Peleliu to stop on Oahu after humanitarian mission
Advertiser Staff
Sailors and civilians aboard USS Peleliu (LHA 5) are scheduled to stop on O'ahu tomorrow on their way home to San Diego after completing a four-month "Pacific Partnership" humanitarian assistance mission.Throughout the mission, Peleliu served as a platform for military and civilian healthcare providers to provide medical, dental, construction and other humanitarian-assistance programs. The same flexibility and configuration that makes Peleliu an effective warship also made it an effective ship for performing humanitarian-assistance missions, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs Office.
Pacific Partnership participants visited locations in Southeast Asia and Oceania, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, providing a variety of medical, dental, educational and preventive medicine services to more than 31,600 patients.
In addition, the ship deployed a team of sailors from the Naval Construction Force (Seabees) to perform repair and construction projects ashore at medical and community facilities.
The deployment was carried out in conjunction with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and in close coordination and partnership with local medical care professionals.
Participants in this endeavor included volunteers from Project Hope, The Aloha Medical Mission of Hawaii and the University of California at San Diego Pre-Dental Society. They joined a contingent of medical specialists from the militaries of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Japan, India, Republic of Korea (ROK) and Vietnam's Ministry of Health.
