The U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command’s hospital ship USUN Mercy (T-AH 19) anchored at Cua Lo Port in the afternoon of July 10 to provide humanitarian and civic assistance (HCA) throughout Nghe An province as part of Pacific Partnership 2012.

The ship’s company contains over 1,200 multi-national members, both services and civilian.

A number of pre-planned engagements will be carried out with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force amphibious ship Oosumi between July 10 th and 24th. They include two engineering, six medical and dental and four veterinary civil action programmes, as well as three biomedical repairs and three subject matter expert engagements.

The Pacific Partnership 1012 team’s focus is on Hung Nguyen district of Nghe An, providing medical and dental care at some district’s primary schools.

The mission also includes a fisheries management symposium jointly hosted by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and rural Development.

Additionally, engineers from the USNS Mercy will renovate and construct clinical facilities in Hung Tien and Hung Lam communes. Biomedical equipment professionals will repair medical instruments at hospitals, and veterinarians will administer vaccinations, worming and light surgery to animals in the Hung Tan and Hung Tien communes.-VNA