USNS Mercy Returns Home Following Pacific Partnership 2018

By Sarah Burford, Military Sealift Command Pacific

SAN DIEGO -- The Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy returned here July 21, following its support of Pacific Partnership 2018.

The ship’s crew is composed of MSC civil service mariners who operated the ship, and Navy medical and support personnel who staffed and oversaw the ship’s hospital and treated patients. This year’s iteration of the annual humanitarian mission included stops throughout Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

Pacific Partnership is the largest multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The Navy and civilian sailors were joined by personnel from nongovernmental organizations and regional partners at the various mission stops.

Mercy provided medical, dental, veterinary, public health services, engineering and disaster response to host countries who invited the ship to visit and provided services to the local populations.

Mercy was joined on the Pacific Partnership mission by the MSC expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Fall River. The Fall River made separate mission stops in Yap, Palau, Malaysian Borneo and Thailand, supporting public diplomacy, community outreach, and theater security cooperation initiatives.

All-Around Success

“This has been one of those deployments I will never forget,” said Julie Flaherty, Mercy’s civil service navigator. “Pacific Partnership touches so many lives, not just the people who receive our services.

“It has been an amazing five months,” she added, and while I am sorry to see all our good work come to an end, I am really happy to be back in San Diego and home. I’m ready to be still and stay put for a while.”

Mercy wrapped up its Pacific Partnership mission with a stop in Tokyo in June. Before returning to San Diego, the ship stopped in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where it participated in a humanitarian response and disaster recovery exercise as part of the multinational maritime exercise Rim of the Pacific 2018.

“This year’s mission was a success all around,” said Capt. Brian Mershon, Mercy’s civil service master. “I couldn’t be happier with my crew and all their hard work. They are a true group of professionals and it was a pleasure to sail with them on this historic mission.”

Now in its 13th year, Pacific Partnership 2018 included more than 800 military and civilian personnel from the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

United Accord Brings Together U.S., Ghanaian Troops

By Army Staff Sgt. Brandon Ames, U.S. Army Africa

ACCRA, Ghana -- Members of Ghana’s armed forces are partnered with participants from other African nations, European allies and U.S. Army Africa for exercise United Accord 2018, which began July 16 at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre here.

"I'd like to thank our Ghanaian counterparts for hosting this world class, two-week exercise," said Army Brig. Gen. Eugene J. LeBoeuf, the U.S. Army Africa acting commander. "We look forward to conducting this mission and returning home to share the lessons learned and new knowledge with our home station."

For two weeks, more than 800 military personnel will participate in UA18. The exercise consists of a command post exercise, company field training exercise focused on peacekeeping operations, a medical readiness exercise and Ghanaian-led jungle warfare school training.

The command post exercise is designed to increase the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali's capacity to plan, deploy, sustain and redeploy a combined joint task force in support of U.N. and African Union-mandated peacekeeping operations.

The field training exercise, jungle training and medical readiness exercise will build participants’ readiness, capacity, security and stability through combined unit-level tactics, individual soldier skills and medical practices in forward-deployed environments.

The purpose of UA18 is to promote interoperability between U.S. and partner forces and organizations, advance troop contributing countries capacity to support MINUSMA and similar operations, and increase exercise participants' abilities to execute MINUSMA sector headquarter tasks, while enhancing positive multilateral relationships.

“Ghana is a defense and economic leader in the region and a valued partner, and it is because of these strengths that Ghana is an ideal host for an exercise like United Accord,” LeBoeuf said.

DoD Policy Chief Urges U.S.-Russian Collaboration on Mutual-Interest Issues

By Terri Moon Cronk, DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon’s chief policy maker addressed the Aspen Security Forum last night about the need for the United States and Russia to seek common collaboration on issues of national security concern as such opportunities might arise.

In Aspen, Colorado, John C. Rood, undersecretary for defense for policy, said of the two near-peer competitors outlined in the 2018 National Defense Strategy – China and Russia – the latter is the larger near-term threat because of the overwhelming lethality of its nuclear arsenal and some of the behavior the Russian government has exhibited, such as threatening NATO allies and illegally annexing Crimea.

Overall, globally, “[we] have to stand firm in defending the ideals and the values of the international rules-based order we’ve put in place, [which] is of benefit for all,” the undersecretary said. “We’ve got to work very closely with allies – [and take] steps to make NATO fit for our times.  And the European Deterrence Initiative is also getting some greater momentum,” he added.

“We also have to be open to opportunities for collaboration,” with Russia, Rood emphasized. “Where our interests align and we have an opportunity to do something together with the Russians, we should look for those opportunities.”

One such opportunity has been the “deconfliction” line in Syria between the United States and Russia, where the U.S. military is working to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, while Russia defends the Syrian president’s regime in a civil war.

Strategic Stability

“We would also like to talk more about strategic stability, making sure there are clear understandings between the United States and Russia, about these terribly lethal weapons that we both control, and talk about the future of nonproliferation,” Rood said of potential future opportunities with Russia.

“We have shared interests in the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery,” he added. “It’s an area where we’ve had a lot of good cooperation from Russia in the past. This is another area we can collaborate on if there’s enough of an alignment of interest.”

Another concern the United States has with Russia is its lack of respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of NATO nations, he said.

“That’s why we’re doing things like deploying, on a rotational basis, troops in four countries along NATO’s eastern periphery; why we’re doing things like the Four-30s initiative,” in which NATO allies, by the year 2020, would have 30 mechanized battalions, 30 air squadrons and 30 combat vessels ready for deployment in 30 days or less. The Four 30s initiative was announced at the June 7-8 meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

North Korea

On North Korea, Rood said it is a solemn obligation for America to make sure that nation makes good on its offer to return the remains of 5,300 U.S. service members from the Korean War, so that American families can have closure. “We’re encouraged that there could be a return of remains in the near future,” he said.

Rood said the Defense Department is hopeful to see progress in North Korea’s efforts to denuclearize.

“What gives me hope this time is [North Korean leader Kim Jong Un] is a different leader than his father and his grandfather,” the undersecretary said of Un’s main focus on the economy, rather than making the military his priority. “I have deep skepticism of denuclearization and their activities, but I’m hopeful,” he said.

Iran

The National Defense Strategy also lists the malign influence of Iran as another major challenge to the United States, and Rood noted the long-standing concern the nation has had over Iran’s nuclear program, in addition to other issues, such as its support for terrorism.

As Iran continues to threaten to close shipping in the Persian Gulf to other nations, he advised the Iranians against such action.

“One of our missions for the United States military is, if called upon, to continue the free flow of commerce in that strategic waterway, whether it is vital oil shipments or other commercial goods, [and] to allow for the free and open navigation in the gulf,” Rood said. “Therefore, I really discourage the Iranian government from thinking about trying to interrupt that free flow of commerce. It would not be in their interest.”