Air Force medics join Navy mission Published July 1, 2008 By Senior Master Sgt. Deborah VanNierop Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AFPN) -- Twenty-eight Air Force medics from across the Pacific region are spending time on the open sea as they participate in Pacific Partnership 2008. Alongside other public health and preventive medicine professionals from the Navy, Army, U.S. Public Health Service and the Military Sealift Command, the medics boarded the USNS Mercy for a four-month humanitarian civic assistance mission throughout the Pacific. In all, the crew will total around 800, said Navy Capt. Robert Wiley, the USNS Mercy master. "Mercy is a fully-functioning, fully-equipped, fully-staffed hospital that we can take just about anywhere in the world, anytime it's needed," Captain Wiley said. "One of the most remarkable things about the Mercy is how it allows so many different organizations and groups to come together and work. I think that's the theme of this mission -- civic partnership." The ship will travel to the Philippines, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia, said Navy Capt. W.A. Kearns III, the USNS Mercy commander. Preparing for Pacific Partnership 2008 took the efforts of individuals from all of the services and across the Pacific to ensure nothing was overlooked. "Thirteenth Air Force provided the Air Force piece to the joint planning and coordinated the sourcing of individual requirements," said Maj. Randall Ivall, the 13th Air Force Contingency Operations and Plans chief at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. "We also facilitated the base-level support for individual deployment preparation." The floating hospital is equipped with 100 patient beds, three operating rooms, one emergency room, a four-bed intensive care unit and an isolations ward. The mission will conclude in September. "We want to help out those countries in medically underserved regions ... and we want to be a good neighbor," Captain Kearns said. Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link) View the comments/letters page