The U.S. military high speed vessel USNS Millinocket (JHSV 3) arrived in Honiara, Solomon Islands on July 10 for the ship’s third stop of the Pacific Partnership 2015 mission. The opening ceremony was held on July 13 at the Heritage Park Hotel.
The USNS Millinocket, led by an expeditionary command element from the U.S. Navy's 30th Naval Construction Regiment from Port Hueneme, California, are serving as one of two platforms for Pacific Partnership 2015. The other platform is the U.S. military hospital ship USNS Mercy, which recently visited Bougainville and Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.
During the Pacific Partnership 2015 opening ceremony in Honiara, U.S. Ambassador Walter North emphasized the excellent close cooperation and partnership that the United States and Solomon Islands have, as exemplified by combined missions like Pacific Partnership. During his opening ceremony remarks, the Ambassador said, “Today marks a proud day in the friendship and partnership between Solomon Islanders and the people of the United States. I’m very pleased that the USNS Millinocket arrived to provide vital health care to hundreds of people here in Honiara and across the island of Guadalcanal.” The Ambassador added, “You, the people of the Solomon Islands, offer your friendship, your hospitality, and warm greetings to all the military, civilian, medical professionals, and engineering experts that have come here to help and provide humanitarian assistance. Thank you.”
“The service members aboard the Millinocket are bringing a wealth of knowledge and numerous skill sets to the Solomon Islands,” said Lt. Col. Gregory Malone, the deputy commander of Task Force Forager, which is executing the mission in Solomon Islands. “From renovating schools to providing useful information to their medical professionals, I believe it will be a reciprocal learning experience for everyone involved.”
Medical teams onboard the USNS Millinocket will provide care in specialty areas such a dentistry, optometry, obstetrics and gynecology, and veterinary care. “We look forward to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our counterparts as we conduct patient care together, thereby passing knowledge and learning from them as much as they might learn from us,” said U.S. Army Major Chris Caldwell, the medical task force executive officer. “We will also take advantage of any opportunity to provide lectures, discussions, demonstrations, and seminars.”
Pacific Partnership’s Seabees, or “CBs,” which stands for construction battalions, comprised of sailors from Amphibious Construction Battalion One and two Marine civil engineers, will renovate the Vura Primary School in Honiara.
“We are going to be working at the Vura School,” said Chief Steelworker Bradley Vanhorn, engineering assistant officer in charge, from Amphibious Construction Battalion 1. “We are going to install new doors and windows, electrical outlets and lighting, and install a new roof. None of the buildings are painted, so this is going to give the school a huge facelift.” In another building at the school, the engineers will demolish a bathroom, repairing handrails and painting. “Walking into a school that looks nice is going to be great for the kids,” said Vanhorn. “The kids are very interested in everything we are doing out there.”
Now in its tenth iteration, Pacific Partnership is the largest annual multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Asia-Pacific Region. While training for crisis conditions, Pacific Partnership missions have provided medical care to approximately 270,000 patients and veterinary services to more than 38,000 animals. Additionally, the mission has provided critical infrastructure developments to host nations through the completion of more than 180 engineering projects.
Pacific Partnership was founded to deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster resilience to Pacific nations following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The global response to the 2004 tsunami, and the widespread goodwill and cooperation that resulted, formed the genesis of Pacific Partnership’s mission to proactively build disaster response capacity. Besides providing medical and humanitarian assistance, Pacific Partnership’s overarching goal is to improve the effectiveness of the region's military forces, governments, and humanitarian organizations during disaster relief operations.
