• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Southern Partnership Commander, Medical Team Visit Chilean Hospital

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS101126-01
11/26/2010

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW) Jeffery Tilghman Williams, High Speed Vessel Swift Southern Partnership Station 11 Public Affairs

CONCEPCION, Chile (NNS) -- Southern Partnership Station (SPS) 2011 Mission Commander and his medical detachment visited Naval Hospital Talcuhuano Nov. 23 for a tour of the facility and information exchange.

During the visit, Cmdr. Mark Becker and his team met with the hospital's commanding officer, Carlos Micolich Figueroa, who discussed how the country's earthquake in February has affected their operations, and how they are gradually returning to normal operations and capabilities.

"This was an integral part of our information exchange mission here, because we gained great insight on the resiliency of this country," said Becker. "We saw first hand their emergency response capabilities, and procedures and how efficiently they responded to a natural disaster."

The two-hour tour of the facility included both the internal and external areas of the hospital and allowed for a Project Handclasp delivery of nine stuffed animals, which were donated by Loving Hugs Inc. to patients in the children's ward.

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

"Seeing the smiles on those kids' faces was the best part of the tour for me," said Electronics Technician 3rd Class Hong Li, a member of the ship's security team who is pursuing an education in pediatrics. "Wow! you could see the pure joy and excitement."

The 2010 chile earthquake off the country's coast Feb. 27 was at magnitude 8.8 and lasted 90 seconds. It was felt strongly in six Chilean regions that make up 80 percent of the country's population. The earthquake triggered a tsunami which devastated several coastal towns, displacing approximately 1.5 million people.

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

The complement of service members embarked on High Speed Vessel Swift (HSV 2) are also scheduled to conduct training and subject matter expert exchanges with partner nations in: Ecuador, El Salador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru.

Commander, U.S. Navy 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.

For more news from U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command & U.S. 4th Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/cusns/.