Supplying Logistical Success for Pacific Partnership 2024-1

Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Celia Martin | U.S. Navy Sailors participate in a working party to onload mail onto the hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) during Pacific Partnership 2024-1 while anchored off Honiara, Solomon Islands, Dec. 1, 2023. Pacific Partnership, now in its 19th iteration, is the largest multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific and works to enhance regional interoperability and disaster response capabilities, increase security stability in the region, and foster new and enduring friendships. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Celia Martin)  

PACIFIC OCEAN

01.28.2024

Story by Petty Officer 2nd Class Celia Martin 

Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific

The hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) Supply department, comprised of approximately 150 Sailors, along with four Pacific Partnership 2024-1 mission supply personnel, medical team planners and civilian mariners, worked together to provide logistical support for Pacific Partnership, the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific.

During the four-month mission, which started in early October 2023, Mercy Sailors worked alongside allies and partners to strengthen relationships, bolster host nation capacity to provide essential humanitarian services and supported efforts to prepare in calm to respond in crisis.

Now in its 19th iteration, Pacific Partnership executed mission stops in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, the Republic of Palau, and two stops in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Supply began the preparation phase for the mission as early as December 2022 by looking back at past missions to gauge what material would be needed. Sailors ensured funding was requested and available, and worked closely with the Medical Planning team to identify what the host nations and doctors needed to fulfill the mission. Once all of that was done, orders were placed for Mercy to receive and stow over 300 humanitarian line items before the start of mission.

“Our medical providers cannot successfully provide life-changing care in these remote islands unless they have the right medical equipment and consumables,” said Cmdr. Monique Schoenthal, Mercy’s supply officer. “It’s imperative in Supply that we get what they need, when they need it.”

After the preparation phase was complete, shipboard activation began, said Schoenthal. This consisted of opening the galley and patient nutrition rooms, Ship’s Store, stocking the warehouse with more than 300 pallets of medical and non-medical material, and embarking approximately 800 service members onto Mercy by assigning living spaces, handing out linens and activating the ship’s post office.

Supply’s job continued throughout deployment and required Sailor’s to constantly be thinking ahead to future stops and their unique requirements. Mercy was anchored out during every mission stop, which required material movement via barge and water taxis for personnel and supplies to go between the ship and shore.

“It’s a very manual process,” said Schoenthal. “We don’t have embarked helicopters, so all cargo has to be on loaded and off loaded by crane and barge from ashore, and it all has to get done in a short amount of time to ensure that medical personnel, the band and the engineers have all of the equipment they need to start the mission.”

Another limiting factor for Supply to overcome was the austere and remote environment along with resource constraints in the host nations.

“It cannot be understated that the provision of medical care requires large quantities of medical consumable supplies and that a medical operation that runs short on supply can be severely degraded in its capability to execute the mission,” said Capt. David Burke, Mercy’s executive officer. “Like any other operational platform, the ability of our Supply team to execute the acquisition, storage and movement of medical supplies is absolutely integral to our success in a fast-paced operation like Pacific Partnership.”

During the mission, Mercy conducted 16,781 patient encounters and trained 2,297 host nation partners, including 410 life-changing surgeries across 748 medical engagements. None of these achievements would have been possible without Supply.

“Large scale medical operations simply cannot be effective without the logistical expertise and steadfast readiness of our key enablers in Supply,” said Burke.

The efforts of Sailors in the Supply department proved essential to the unparalleled success for the mission and the Sailors, partners and allies, and host nations involved.

"Supply purchased $2.5 million in medical consumables to support the mission on board and ashore,” said Cmdr. Donald Lucas, director of medical operations and planning for Pacific Partnership. “Every single item was ordered, received, and distributed by the Supply Department. Their work touched every single patient we treated."

For more information about Pacific Partnership and USNS Mercy, visit www.facebook.com/pacificpartnership, www.facebook.com/USNSMERCY, or https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/ships/mercy

• Date Taken: 01.28.2024
• Date Posted: 01.29.2024 00:59
• Story ID: 462599
• Location: PACIFIC OCEAN