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Mercy returning from humanitarian mission

SAN DIEGO — The hospital ship Mercy will arrive in San Diego on Thursday to wrap up a humanitarian deployment to Southeast Asia. The ship led Pacific Partnership 2008, a humanitarian civic mission that brought the ship to five countries, where sailors and medical professionals stepped out to provide medical, dental, construction, engineering and other assistance in the Philippines, Vietnam, Micronesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

Navy Capt. W.A. Kearns III, who commands Destroyer Squadron 31, served as the mission commander, and Capt. James P. Rice commanded the military treatment facility aboard the ship.

Mercy and its embarked unique, blended crew — which included Navy Seabees and other military service members as well as U.S Public Health Service personnel and a half-dozen nongovernmental organizations — treated more than 90,000 patients and joined in 26 engineering projects across the region. The ship also hosted and supported medical and engineering professionals from 15 countries.

Mercy is a Military Sealift Command ship and is skippered by a civilian master, Capt. Robert T. Wiley. In 2006, Mercy completed a similar five-month deployment to Southeast Asia, including areas devastated by the December 2004 tsunami and earthquake.