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Pacific Partnership 2009 Arrives in Tonga

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090715-15
Release Date: 7/15/2009 3:20:00 PM

From Pacific Partnership 2009 Public Affairs

NUKU ALOFA, Tonga (NNS) -- The underway replenishment ship USNS Richard E. Byrd (T-AKE 4) arrived in Tonga July 13 as part of the four-month Pacific Partnership 2009 mission.

Pacific Partnership 2009 is a humanitarian civic assistance mission based on cooperation from, with and between partner nations, non-governmental organizations and other U.S. government and international agencies.

During the stop in Tonga, the Pacific Partnership 2009 crew focused on a variety of engineering, medical and dental civic action programs providing humanitarian civic assistance to local citizens.

Building on partnerships forged in previous missions, the team for Pacific Partnership 2009 includes military and government personnel from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Tonga and the United States and civilian volunteers who will work alongside their Tongan counterparts.

Pacific Partnership will conduct medical, dental, veterinary and engineering civic action
programs ashore at locations on the Ha'apai islands.

For this mission, Byrd has been outfitted with humanitarian civic assistance equipment and supplies and a staff augmented with a robust multi-specialized team of preventive medicine personnel, veterinarians, medical and dental teams and engineering personnel.

For more news from Pacific Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/cpf/.