This Day in Naval History - Feb. 27

From the Navy News Service

1861 - Congress approves the construction of seven steam sloops.

1928 - A packtrain escorted by 35 Marines is ambushed by 600 Sandinastas near Bromaderos, Nicaragua. The Marines fight off the repeated attacks and are relieved the next day.
1942 - During the Battle of the Java Sea, an allied naval force attacks a Japanese invasion convoy.

SPS 2011 Concludes in Nicaragua

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jeffery Tilghman Williams, High Speed Vessel Swift (HSV 2) Public Affairs

CORINTO, Nicaragua (NNS) -- U.S. Sailors and Marines supporting Southern Partnership Station (SPS) 2011, joined Nicaraguan sailors at a closing ceremony and celebration at the local school where they completed a five-day construction subject matter expert exchange (SMEE) in Corinto, Nicaragua, March 31.

Sailors assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 28 and Marines assigned to 2nd Marine Logistics Group (MLG) were honored during a farewell ceremony and certificate presentation at Instituto Parroquial Pbro. Emilio S. Chavarria, to recognize and thank them for constructing a classroom and library at the school.

The event marked the conclusion of a 10-day visit to Corinto that included medical, security and construction SMEEs with Nicaraguan military counterparts.

Indiouis Reyes, school director, presented Cmdr. Mark Becker, SPS 2011 mission commander, and Lt. Rama Mutyala, NMCB 28 detail bravo officer-in-charge, with certificates of appreciation for the construction work completed by Sailors and Marines from NMCB 28 and 2nd MLG, as well as the Nicaraguan navy.

"We can't express how thankful and grateful we are to these men who have taken the time to provide us with the tools we need to teach these kids," said Reyes.

The SPS 2011 construction team partnered with their Nicaraguan counterparts to build two 16-by-32-foot wood frame Southeast Asia (SEA) huts as part of an information exchange designed to build and strengthen ties with the Nicaraguan government.

"We could not have completed this task in such a short period of time without the exceptional assistance of the Nicaraguan sailors who helped us build these two structures," said Mutyala. "The cross training which took place between the two services was a testament to professionalism and partnership."

"Throughout our visit to Nicaragua, the local people have been so receptive and helpful, and we thank them for hosting this event for us," said Becker. "We're committed to continuing to develop enduring relationships with the people of Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan government."

This project is just one of the projects the Seabees and Marines have completed in six South and Central America countries since SPS 2011 began in November 2010. They have also conducted SMEEs with foreign militaries in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru.

SPS 11 is an annual deployment of U.S. ships to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility in the Caribbean and Latin America. The mission's primary goal is information-sharing with navies, coast guards and civilian services throughout the region.

Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (COMUSNAVSO) is the naval component command for U.S. Southern Command and is responsible for all naval personnel and assets in the area of responsibility.

COMUSNAVSO conducts a variety of missions in support of the U.S. Maritime Strategy, including theater security cooperation, relationship building, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, community relations, and counter-illicit trafficking operations.

Southern Partnership Station 2011 Kicks Off Mission in Nicaragua

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jeffery Tilghman Williams, High Speed Vessel Swift Public Affairs

CORINTO, Nicaragua (NNS) -- The joint military construction team supporting Southern Partnership Station (SPS) 2011 kicked off its mission Corinto, Nicaragua, March 22.

The construction team consists of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 28 detail bravo Sailors and 2nd Marine Logistics Group (MLG) members, who will conduct subject matter expert exchanges (SMEE) at Instituto Parroquial Pbro. Emilio S. Chavarria with Nicaraguan military members.

During the SMEE, service members are working together to construct two Southeast Asia huts (SEA hut), to be used as a classroom and library for the children and faculty at the school.

"This is going to be a challenging project for us, because we are attempting to construct two 16-by-32-foot wood frame structures in five days, while participating in an information sharing exchange with members of the Nicaraguan military," said Lt. Rama Mutyala, NMCB detail bravo officer-in-charge. "But I'm confident our team is more than capable of performing the task at hand."

The construction project is the first of several SMEEs U.S. Sailors, Marines and Airman have planned during their nine-day engagement in Nicaragua. Additional SMEEs focusing on physical security, medicine, civil affairs and counter terrorism techniques are scheduled during the visit.

"We're focused for this mission, and committed to this cross training venture with our foreign counterparts," said Construction Electrician 1st Class Sammy Hill, NMCB detail bravo leading petty officer. "Today's the first day, and we've already learned a few things from the Nicaraguan sailors, which goes to show the importance of SPS."

SPS 11 is an annual deployment of U.S. ships to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility in the Caribbean and Latin America. The mission's primary goal is information-sharing with navies, coast guards and civilian services throughout the region.

Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (COMUSNAVSO) is the naval component command for U.S. Southern Command and is responsible for all naval personnel and assets in the area of responsibility.

COMUSNAVSO conducts a variety of missions in support of the U.S. Maritime Strategy, including theater security cooperation, relationship building, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, community relations, and counter-illicit trafficking operations.

Hurricane Felix Assessment Team Arrives in Nicaragua

By Tech. Sgt. Sonny Cohrs, USAF
Special to American Forces Press Service

Sept. 7, 2007 - A 13-person hurricane assessment team from Joint Task Force Bravo and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance arrived here Sept. 5 to begin surveying damage following landfall of Hurricane Felix. The team deployed from Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, as soon as the weather allowed, and made a quick stop for fuel in the capital city of Managua. There, a military doctor and civil affairs officer remained behind to assist the American embassy in determining immediate needs of the country.

The CH-47 Chinook helicopter then transported the remaining members of the assessment team and 10 members of the Nicaraguan National Police Special Brigade's search-and-rescue team to Puerto Cabezas.

Upon arrival in Puerto Cabezas, the assessment team was greeted by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who expressed his thanks for their efforts during his country's time of need.

Army Staff Sgt. Melvin Fleming, with the U.S. Embassy's Defense Attache office in Managua, said reports came in that the northern coast had been hit badly. "There have been initial reports of up to 80 percent damage to the infrastructure along the Atlantic Coast," he said."There is no desperation, but they are asking for aid. They need our help in getting (the relief) there."

The assessment team flew missions throughout the remote northeastern portion of the country yesterday to assess damage sustained from the storm. Most of their flight was recorded with an automated route recon kit, which captures video, still images and global positioning system coordinates to a laptop computer.

"Right now, we're just providing an assessment of the damage that was sustained," said Army Lt. Col. Gregory Jicha, commander of the task force here with the mission. "We will take the imagery ... and provide it to the Embassy here, U.S. Southern Command headquarters, and back to Joint Task Force Bravo for them to make the determination of what is needed in the region."

Jicha is currently visiting with the American Ambassador to Nicaragua to review the video and photos taken during the flight.

In addition to the civil affairs officer and doctor, the assessment team also has communications specialists, engineers, command-and-control officers, and a member of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, who will help coordinate the U.S. government's response to the humanitarian emergency. The assessment team is living in a makeshift camp just off the air strip where they landed.

(Air Force Tech. Sgt. Sonny Cohrs is assigned to Joint Task Force Bravo Public Affairs.)

Medical Personnel Bring Comfort to Nicaragua

American Forces Press Service

July 24, 2007 - Medical personnel aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship are providing free medical assistance to thousands of people in Nicaragua. The Comfort sailed out of Norfolk, Va., June 15 on a four-month humanitarian assistance deployment to more than a dozen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Before arriving in Nicaragua, personnel aboard the ship provided medical care to more than 55,000 patients in Belize, Guatemala and Panama.

"This deployment provides an opportunity for us to work together with countries in the region to make a lasting contribution across our hemisphere," Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said before the ship departed. "Comfort's mission will reach far beyond the patients we will see each day."

The ship's medical treatment facility is staffed by about 500 medical personnel, covering a wide variety of medical fields and areas of expertise. In addition to Navy personnel, the staff includes members from other military services, other government agencies and even non-government organizations.

One such organization is "Operation Smile," whose members are providing medical care to children from Nicaragua with facial deformities, primarily cleft lips and palates. About 25 volunteers from Operation Smile will complete 35 surgeries by tomorrow in Nicaragua. They started working in that country July 19.

"We have a whole team of nurses, anesthesiologists, plastic surgeons, dentists, orthodontists, a speech therapist, a nutritionist and a psychologist, because it is all connected," said Lily Montealegre, president of the board for Operation Smile in Nicaragua. "Once the operation is done, we do follow-up, and that is what the local Nicaraguan mission also takes care of."

Operation Comfort and the Navy began working together during a mission aboard the USNS Mercy in Bangladesh. The "positive experience" during that mission led to the organization's continued collaboration with the Navy, said Linda Highfield, a registered nurse and clinical coordinator for Operation Smile aboard Comfort.

"I think it just goes to show, both with Operation Smile and everyone helping this mission, how we feel about the people around the world," said Highfield. "We want to be helpful, and that is why we are here."

Dr. Arash Babaoff, the Operation Smile pediatrician aboard Comfort, said the partnership with the military is working out very well.

"I can't think of a better alliance than working with the U.S. Navy, or any of the forces, for that matter," said Babaoff. "I really hope we get more opportunities to work together in other countries. I have been personally so impressed by what I have seen here and what we are doing. I always knew that our military was helping people in other places, but to really see this firsthand, for me, has been a really great experience."

In addition to the work done by Operation Comfort in Nicaragua, the ship's personnel are providing thousands of people with various other health care services. One of three locations the Comfort team is serving is the Quince de Julio Health Care Center, lying at the foot of the San Cristobal Volcano in the rural area of Chinandega.

Medical doctors and personnel from the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Public Health Service and volunteers from Project Hope and Operation Smile were operating a full medical clinic within moments of arrival. The services provided at Quince de Julio included adult and pediatric primary care, dentistry, optometry, immunizations, and prescription services. Navy Seabees from Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 202 also made repairs to the site.

"We're putting a footprint here and hopefully someday they'll remember the U.S. was here," said Cmdr. Linda Nash, Comfort's director of nursing services. "We were able to administer health care to the people and take care of ongoing health problems that they hadn't been able to take care of before.

"By helping these people and training them by practicing with other professionals, they'll carry that knowledge and that relationship with them for many years and always remember it," Nash said. "Hopefully that's what we are doing here in Nicaragua is establishing some long-term relationships."

Children from the Montica Berio Education Center supported Comfort's mission by providing translation assistance to the medical personnel so they could better understand each patient's needs.

"We are helping our community by translating for the doctors and patients," said Ana Villanueva, a Nicaraguan translator. "I feel great about being here working with the U.S. to help with translating generally because we think that it pleases our heart to do something good."

Comfort is spending three days at la Rancheria Clinic and is also providing care at the Jose Schendal Hospital in Corinto and Health Care Center Realejo in Chinandega.

During the mission in Nicaragua, surgeons aboard the removed an extra toe from a five-year-old Nicaraguan boy on July 21.

Darwin Padilla, was born with the extra toe, which prevented him from wearing shoes or attending school. His mother, Paula Padilla, said she heard about Comfort's humanitarian mission three days before service members and civilians from Comfort started seeing patients at Jose Schendal Health Center in Corinto, Nicaragua, and had a friend put her son's name on the list to be seen.

Padilla said they traveled for two hours by bus from the town of Somotillo along the Nicaraguan border to reach the hospital where Darwin was evaluated by medical staff and flown by helicopter to Comfort for surgery.

Padilla was very impressed when she came aboard Comfort.

"I like the ship, but what I like most about it is the people," Padilla said. "They are loving and caring. It's good to know that there are people that care about other countries and are willing to help."

Lt. Cmdr. Eric Shirley, the pediatric orthopedic surgeon aboard Comfort, operated on Darwin and said the surgery went well and Darwin should be able to function normally from now on.

"He'll have no problems running or wearing normal shoes. He's going to do very well when he gets back, though I'll have to put him in a cast for the first couple of weeks to keep him out of trouble," Shirley said.

Comfort's mission is part of U.S. Southern Command's Partnership for the Americas initiative, an on-going training and readiness operation designed to strengthen regional partnerships and improve multinational interoperability. The ship is also scheduled to visit Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago before completing its voyage in September.

(Compiled from reports by U.S. Navy Seaman Jeff Hall, Petty Officer 2nd Class Joshua Karsten and Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Shelander, USNS Comfort Public Affairs.)