President Thanks Navy Engineers
August 13, 2009
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| President Jose Ramos-Horta Presents Navy Construction Battalion with Citation in appreciation of construction and engineering work carried out in Timor-Leste. |
Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta expressed his appreciation to the U.S. Navy Mobile Construction Battalion (Seabees) on August 13 as it concluded its six-month deployment to Timor-Leste. During this time, the Seabees completed nine school-related projects touching over 105,000 community members, and directly impacting 16,581 students, and 293 teachers in the districts of Baucau, Bobonaro, and Dili. The Seabees’ overall mission is to coordinate with the Timor-Leste Government and other international partners on infrastructure project development in order to improve essential infrastructure, service capabilities, and foster goodwill. A new Seabee detachment arrived on August 14 to begin its own six-month deployment.
Ambassador Klemm visited the district of Bobonaro on July 28 and 29. The Ambassador met with local officials to discuss security and development issues, toured a border patrol outpost, and inaugurated a USAID-supported mung bean project. He also visited a memorial to the five Australia-based journalists killed at the time of the Indonesian invasion in 1975, the subject of the recently-released film “Balibo.”
Visiting U.S. Air Force doctors and medical technicians
provided free health care services to more than 4,000 Timorese from July 15-21
as part of Operation Pacific Angel. The Airmen operated temporary clinics
at several locations in Dili and on Atauro Island. More than 1,000 of the
patients underwent optometry examinations and received free eyeglasses.
Air Force engineers also completed construction projects at the National
Hospital and two other clinics.
The United States of America, through the U.S.
Pacific Command and the U.S. Air Force, in cooperation with the Government of Timor-Leste,
will provide public health, dental, and engineering assistance through
Operation Pacific Angel from July 15 – 21, 2009. Operation Pacific Angel
is a humanitarian assistance operation designed to support capacity-building
efforts. The civic assistance program’s aim is to also improve military
civic cooperation between the United States and Timor-Leste. A U.S. Air Force
C-130 will fly participants and supplies to Timor-Leste. Pacific Angel will
work alongside the Ministry of Health, NGOs, and F-FDTL. Over 150 joint and
combined forces, including members of the F-FDTL, will participate in the
exercise. The U.S. will train civilian-military operators through various
assistance programs for the benefit of the Timorese population. (