The Boxer ops for Continuing Promise ’08 include having a number of Navy partners’ personnel aboard. There are also military personnel that are not normally a part of the Boxer’s crew, such as Seabees, members of the Uniformed Public Health Service and volunteers from other military branches.

Project Hope is providing a number of medical professionals for both the Boxer’s ops and those of the Kearsarge, which will be the HQ for the Atlantic side of Operation Continuing Promise ’08.

Project HOPE will set the health care/ health education standard and lead the way for NGOs participating in the partnership. We will provide health care and health education in six countries in 2008 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Guyana, helping to strengthen current country programs or initiate new, sustainable health programs in these countries.

HOPE volunteers will be ship-based, with the U.S. Navy providing all support services, to include lodging, meals, communications, and transportation. Surgeries will also take place on board, utilizing the ship’s world-class operating rooms. The primary care and health education teams will perform work ashore and return to the ship daily.

ACAJUTLA, El Salvador (May 26, 2008) Project HOPE member Julie Whitis, embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4), gives a Salvadoran boy a fluoride treatment at the Canton la Sunza school during a Continuing Promise (CP) 2008 community relations project. Boxer is deployed supporting the Pacific phase of CP, an equal-partnership mission between the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador and Peru. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Porter Anderson

The Uniformed Public Health Service is providing personnel. This agency has a proud history, and recalls the successes by uniformed personnel in the early 1900′s in eradicating malaria and yellow fever in places such as Cuba and Panama.

The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is an elite team of more than 6,000 well-trained, highly qualified public health professionals dedicated to delivering the Nation’s public health promotion and disease prevention programs and advancing public health science. Driven by a passion for public service, these men and women serve on the frontlines in the Nation’s fight against disease and poor health conditions.

As one of America’s seven uniformed services, the Commissioned Corps fills essential public health leadership and service roles within the Nation’s Federal Government agencies and programs.

SONSONATE, El Salvador (May 19, 2008) U.S. Public Health Service’s Lt. Elizabeth Leavitt, embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4), takes a break to spend some time with Salvadoran children during continuing Promise (CP) 2008. Boxer is deployed in support of the Pacific phase of CP, an equal partnership mission between the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador and Peru. U.S. Army photo by Specialist Brian R. Williams

The posts on Wednesday and Thursday will focus on the activities in Guatemala and El Salvador and the personnel on the ground in both nations. Friday’s article will discuss the Boxer and its unique suitability for these types of missions. It will also look at the Kearsarge and the Atlantic side of Operation Continuing Promise ’08.

It wasn’t so long ago that the appearance of a United States Naval vessel off the coast of a Central or South American nation meant only one thing. The Marines were landing, either to prop up an existing government or to replace it. The history of United States interventions in the affairs of other nations in our hemisphere goes back to nearly the founding of our country. You cannnot blame the citizens of Latin American nations if they have a suspicious view of the United States and the United States Navy.

In a five part series this week, ANSJ will look at one step that the Navy is taking to change that perspective, Operation Continuing Promise 2008, and in particular the activities of the men and women aboard the U.S.S. Boxer this Spring. A group of hard working Americans is making a difference one roof, one paintbrush at a time.

The U.S.S. Boxer sailed from San Diego at the beginning of May. It has visited Guatemala and El Salvador, and is scheduled to proceed to Peru later in the Summer. Operation Continuing Promise 2008 is a partnership between the military – all four services, the uniformed Public Health Service, and Project Hope, a private NGO. The embarked personnel have been working with host nation civil and military authorities, local and regional NGO’s and the local population. The mission is to improve healthcare, provide health information and training and to provide other assistance wherever possible.

Commodore Peter K. Dallman:

“The variety of training and capabilities Continuing Promise will take into the region clearly demonstrates our nation’s commitment to fostering cooperative partnerships,” said Dallman. “This is a diverse mission that demands a diverse ship and crew. The same flexibility that makes Boxer an effective warship also makes it an extraordinarily effective platform for performing humanitarian assistance missions.”

U.S. Southern Command:

Embarked units and organizations aboard Boxer for CP include Amphibious Squadron 5, Fleet Surgical Team 5, U.S. Public Health Service, Project HOPE, Project Handclasp, Navy Seabee Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 303, Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 14, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 764, Tactical Air Control Squadron 11, Special Marine Air Ground Task Force 24, Helicopter Sea Combat Support Squadron 23, Assault Craft Unit 1, Fleet Survey Team, Beach Master Unit 1 and Maritime Civil Affairs Team 205