Health Diplomacy Weekly Update
Week # 1: 13 June – 19 June
In response to both Presidential and Secretarial initiatives, the Office of Force Readiness and Deployment in the Office of Public Health and Science’s Office of the Surgeon General, is currently deploying teams of commissioned officers on two separate Navy ships undertaking health diplomacy missions. The USNS COMFORT is on a 4 month mission to 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The USS PELELIU is on a 3 month mission to 6 Pacific Rim and Pacific Island countries.
USNS COMFORT
USPHS Officer-in-Charge (OIC): CAPT Craig Shepherd
- USPHS Team 1 arrives and embarks COMFORT on 13 June.
- 6 physicians, 2 dentists, 4 dental hygienists, 2 nurses, 1 environmental health officer, 1 engineer, 1 veterinarian..
- Ship departed Norfolk 15 June. Team 1 spent first 3 days on safety drills, learning the ship and assisting with mission planning.
- Press and VIPs/officials tour ship as COMFORT neared Miami. Officials from Belize, the COMFORT’s first planned foreign stop, board the ship off the Miami coast with plans to remain on board until the ship reaches Belize – reports appear in Miami Herald.
- CAPT Bruce Boynton, the COMFORT Navy Commanding Officer remarks that the USPHS team members are doing “an outstanding job and have rapidly integrated into the team. Craig [Shepherd] is on top of everything and CDR Ulana Bodnar has been instrumental in drafting some important force health protection policies.”
- Plans call for the COMFORT to remain in Belize through 26 June.
USS PELELIU
USPHS OIC: CAPT Kathleen Downs
- CAPT Downs embarks USS PELELIU in Guam 12 June. Assists ship’s leadership with public health mission planning as it steams toward Manila. Total crew size: 1,600 – 1,800. Mostly U.S. Navy, but also some other U.S. military, partner country military, and non-governmental organizations.
- PELELIU arrives in Manila, Philippines 17 June.
- USPHS Team 1 arrives and embarks PELELIU on 18 June.
- 1 physician, 2 environmental engineers.
- PELELIU departs Manila, heading for Bicol region of the Philippines where USPHS officers will be supporting a Preventive Medicine mission. They will be departing the ship on 21 June and staying in-country until 7 July. They will be in tents/field setting the entire time. They will be visiting internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and providing preventive medicine / public health assistance. They will return to the ship 7 July.
- CAPT Downs will be training successive Navy medical officers for their participation on MEDCAPS and DENTCAPS. Different Navy officers will be the site OIC every 2-3 days (as they change locations) to try and give more of them experience in setting up a site and handling administrative tasks. Most of them have participated on smaller MEDCAPS or DENTCAPS but don’t have much ‘administrative’ and ‘flow’ experience. CAPT Downs will be the ‘consistent’ teacher; sharing what she knows as well as what was learned at the previous site. Their first MEDCAP/DENTCAP begins 22/23 June and will consist of 6 separate sites – so she will be going back and forth each night; shifting to a different site every 2-3 days.
Page last modified: June 29, 2007