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HSV 2 Swift Deploys to Caribbean for Southern Partnership Station

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS101108-01
11/8/2010

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

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- High Speed Vessel Swift (HSV 2), along with embarked Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force units, departed Blount Island Marine Terminal in Jacksonville, Fla., Nov. 6, for a five-month deployment in support of Southern Partnership Station 2011 (SPS 11).

Swift departs with 170 Project Handclasp pallets, a mobile medical clinic for Haiti and an ambulance for Honduras.

Project Handclasp is a U.S. Navy program that accepts and transports educational, humanitarian and goodwill material donated by America's private sector on a space-available basis aboard U.S. Navy ships for distribution to foreign nation recipients.

SPS is an annual deployment of U.S. ships to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) 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.

A compliment of U.S. Navy Sailors and Marines embarked on Swift will conduct training and subject matter expert exchanges with partner nations in SOUTHCOM: Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru.

Commander, U.S. Navy Southern Command (COMUSNAVSO) is the naval component command for SOUTHCOM, conducting 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.