Operation Continuing Promise 2008 - 5
“being involved in this kind of thing and doing this kind of work is what they joined the Navy for”
Boxer is home in San Diego, after successful stops in three Latin American nations. Operation Continuing Promise ‘08 was designed to provide medical assistance and education to people in Guatemala, El Salvador and Peru. A contingent of SeaBees were aboard tasked to engage in repair and reconstruction activities at various sites in the host countries. And a load of materials donated by Project Handclasp, books and other supplies, was along to be distributed where needed.
A Bloggers’ Roundtable on June 26 with Navy Capt. Peter Dallman, commander of Amphibious Squadron 5, filled in more of the details. The transcript is here [PDF file].
This was a two month mission, shorter than many that Boxer undertakes. She was staffed with an air detatchment - helicopters, several landing craft, the Naval Construction unit also called SeaBees [ about 60 ], a group [ about 21 ] from the NGO Project Hope, a rotating set of uniformed personnel [ about 15 ]of the US Public Health Service as well as additional military personnel [ about 90 ]. The added military included medical staff, a Marine beach party for landing support and volunteers from several branches of the military.
Materials were bought with some Title 10 funds. About half was purchased in the States with the remainder being bought in the host countries.
The Seabees worked on 8 schools, a church and also two culverts. In the buildings, the work included plumbing, electrical repairs and renovations and some roof repair and replacement.
On the medical side, Captain Dallman reported:
We had 127 total surgeries onboard Boxer, 14,000 total dental procedures, 66 repairs to biomedical equipment in the various clinics and hospitals that we worked at. A lot of this is done by corpsmen that don’t have any parts, no kit, no tool bag, no anything. So I was amazed that they could repair that many.
We saw just under 4,000 optometry patients. We distributed about 3,500 glasses to those patients.
We dispensed nearly 40,000 medications.
We had a veterinarian team, and they saw just under 2,900 animals total. A lot of that was vaccinations and de-worming.
And primary care saw just over 14,000 patients.
So total patients for the 28 mission days was just over 24,000 patients seen. And that results — if you add in the classes, 123 classes, and 18,000 total students for those classes, then that’s a total of 65,000 encounters during the 28 mission days.
Kearsarge will be doing the same sort of mission later in the summer, on the Atlantic side of the continent. Both Boxer and Kearsarge are uniquely qualified to do these types of missions. They can support air operations, landing craft operations and they can carry a significant number of personnel beyond their own crews. They also have a great deal of space to conduct medical procedures and for storage.
These missions are no longer an exception. USNS Mercy is currently in Vietnam having been engaged in an assistance mission in Southeast Asia. The Reagan carrier battle group is providing typhoon relief in the Philippines. The United States Navy with its capabilities and world-wide reach is able to conduct routine and emergency humanitarian assistance operations, saving lives and giving the people of diverse nations a positive view of the United States and its people.
Table of contents for Continuing Promise '08
- Operation Continuing Promise 2008 - 1
- Operation Continuing Promise 2008 - 2
- Operation Continuing Promise 2008 - 3
- Operation Continuing Promise 2008 - 4
- Boxer Arrives in Peru
- USS Boxer in Peru
- Operation Continuing Promise 2008 - 5
- USS Kearsarge Reports on Continuing Promise 2008
- Navy Knowhow Nudges Nun to Net
- Our Best: Reading to the Children
- Paint Is Progress
- A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words
- Our Best: HOPE in Guyana
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