A Hint of Nostalgia Accompanies Mercy's Visit to the Philippines

Latest mission of U.S. Navy's hospital ship has a decidedly new twist

After a 20-year absence, the return of the U.S. Navy hospital ship Mercy to the Philippines had something of a nostalgic cast.

But that wistful look back was not to the 1986 visit when the Mercy provided medical assistance in Luzon. It was to the October 1944 arrival of another U.S. Navy hospital ship named Mercy,which sailed into Leyte Gulf as the largest naval battle in history was raging.

As the latest ship to bear that name anchored in Manila Bay May 21, Captain Joseph Moore, commanding officer of the ship's medical treatment facility, reminded the crew - most of whom were born well after World War II - that the earlier Mercy, just half the size of the current one, treated some 400 casualties in one day.

"One wonders what the training schedule might have been for the doctors, nurses, corpsmen and support crew of Mercy as they made their way across the Pacific," Moore said. "Other accounts of this era have nurses opening boxes of supplies and finding surgical instruments and equipment wrapped in newspapers dated 1917."

For its current visit, the Mercy is configured with state-of-the-art medical equipment and a robust multispecialized medical team of uniformed health care providers capable of providing a wide range of services ashore as well as on board the ship.

What makes this deployment of the Mercy unique is that local civilian medical professionals and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) will be working side-by-side with military personnel.

Volunteers from the U.S. Public Health Service, Aloha Medical Mission, Project Hope and the Pre-Dental Society of the University of California at San Diego are joining the Mercy in Manila, along with a contingent of medical specialists from the U.S. and Canadian militaries.

Medical personnel from the Philippines' armed forces will board the ship for the monthlong Philippine portion of the Mercy's five-month mission. The Mercy's crew also will work with onshore assistance organizations, such as the Tzu Chi Foundation, ACDI/VOCA, Save the Children and the Philippine Red Cross.

The Mercy, whose home port is San Diego, can support various services such as casualty reception, optometry screenings, corrective eyewear distribution, physical therapy, burn care, radiological and laboratory services, dermatology, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery, ophthalmologic surgery, plastic surgery, basic medical evaluation and treatment, preventative medicine treatment, dental screenings and treatment, immunizations, public health training and veterinary services.

In addition, the 272.5-meter-long ship will deploy a small team of sailors from the Naval Construction Force (Seabees) to perform repair and minor construction projects ashore. Some of these construction projects directly can improve local medical and sanitary facilities.

The USNS Mercy departed Manila on the evening of May 23 and is headed for Zamboanga, Jolo and Tawi-Tawi, which have been terrorist havens in Mindanao. Its work there will be humanitarian, although the U.S. Pacific Fleet will be conducting military exercises with its Philippine counterparts.

The Mercy's stops in the Philippines are something of a homecoming for its crew - at least 25 percent are Filipino-Americans. Captain Henry Villareal, second to mission commander Captain Bradley Martin, is the highest-ranking Filipino-American aboard the ship.

The Mercy, which served admirably in the region during the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, is also scheduled to visit Indonesia, East Timor and Bangladesh. (See related story.)

For additional information on U.S humanitarian efforts, see U.S. Response to Tsunami.

Source: U.S. Department of State

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