By Petty Officer 1st Class Phillip Dale James Jr.
ABOARD USS CLEVELAND, At Sea – Navy Lt. j.g. Brian L Miller from Chanhassen, Minn., is serving with Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 the “Wild Cards” as a MH-60S Knight Hawk pilot embarked aboard amphibious transport dock ship USS Cleveland.
Cleveland is the lead vessel for Pacific Partnership 2011. Pacific Partnership is the Pacific Fleet’s annual mission to Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands to engage in partnerships with host nations by improving dialogue, effecting a lasting, positive change, and employing subject matter expert exchanges in order to improve the capabilities and interoperability of the U.S. and partner nations when dealing with natural and man-made disasters.
“I'm really excited; I think it's a great mission. It's really good for the Navy to put a good face forward. It's a great fly for us; we get to go to go to a bunch of tropical, exotic places, fly around; we get to fly personnel here on the ship and if anyone needs any help there is a Search and Rescue/Medical Evacuation asset,” said Miller..
Cleveland will visit the Kingdom of Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and the Federated States of Micronesia, and the military group will be accompanied by non-government organizations like Project HOPE, Vets Without Borders and the University of California, San Diego Pre-Dental Society.
“When we are flying we don't get to do a lot of face-to-face stuff with the people. We're helping, so a lot of us are excited to get off the boat and get our hands dirty,” said Miller. “My parents are the ones that got me to this point. My hometown and high school got me to the Naval Academy which allowed me to become a Naval pilot.”
Pacific Partnership developed as a mission following the tsunami in 2004 which devastated Indonesia and much of the South Pacific. Since then, Pacific Partnership has treated 210,000 patients in 15 countries, and is supported by all U.S. uniformed services and partner nations that include Australia, Japan and New Zealand. Other nations providing teams include Canada, Spain, Malaysia and France.
For more news from Pacific Partnership, visit:
www.cpf.navy.mil/pp11
http://pacificpartnership/wordpress.com
www.facebook/pacificpartnership
http://twitter.com/pacificpartner
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2011 13:54 |
| Story ID: | 69724 |
| Location: | ABOARD USS CLEVELAND, USAFRICOM, AT SEA |
| Web Views: | 19 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Navy Officer from Chanhassen Participates in Humanitarian Mission In South Pacific, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
