The Continuing Promise 2015 (CP-15) team embarked aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) in El Salvador after transiting the Panama Canal, June 17.

Host nation government and military officials, including the Minister of Health, Minister of Defense, and the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, welcomed the arrival of Comfort and its crew June 15 during an opening ceremony, marking the fifth Continuing Promise mission to take place in El Salvador since 2007.

Guests enjoyed performances by The U.S. Fleet Forces band, Uncharted Waters, and the Salvadoran military concert band, Destacamento Militar 6, as well as a traditional dance performance by a local troupe.

Capt. Sam Hancock, CP-15 mission commander, explained that the mission in Acajutla offers the opportunity to build upon the partnerships between the United States and El Salvador.

"Comfort last deployed to El Salvador in support of Continuing Promise in 2011, and I can tell you, we are very excited to be back," Hancock said. "We look forward to working alongside our El Salvadorian partners at medical sites established at Centro Escuela Lisandro Larin Zepeda and Centro Escolar Doctor Eduardo Enrique Barrientos to provide medical, dental and optometry services to area residents."

On the opening day of CP-15 operations, the crew, non-governmental organization (NGO) medical volunteers and Ministry of Health volunteers provided no-cost medical and dental services to more than 1,500 patients.

"The community welcomed us with open arms. The volunteers, translators and the Ministry of Health provided ample support to us and working with them has been wonderful. We are extremely fortunate to have such a diverse team of professionals working together," said Cmdr. Anne Schwarz, officer in charge of the medical site established at Centro Escolar Doctor Eduardo Enrique Barrientos.

Scheduled subject matter expert exchanges (SMEEs) also began with the CP-15 veterinary team and three host nation veterinarians. Working together, the team treated 109 cattle and nine dogs in the Santa Agueda District.

Dozens of additional SMEEs are planned throughout the nine-day visit to include a women's health seminar, environmental health vector management, mosquito education, and a variety of health and medical topics.

"SMEEs have been a major part of the CP-15 mission, serving to foster goodwill and build partner capacity with host nations; this in turn improves our collective capacity to respond in support of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts in the region," said Lt. Cmdr. Jason Jones, training officer aboard Comfort's medical treatment facility. "Everyone brings a different set of experiences to the table, which enables the exchange of ideas to occur and provides an invaluable opportunity to learn from our host nation counterparts," said Jones.

Additionally, Navy Seabees assigned to Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 202, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Jacksonville, Florida, will be conducting projects at Escuela de Educacin Especial de Acajutla and Instituto Nacional de Acajutla.

The work planned for El Salvador includes the construction of pavilions at each site, the installation of railings, a fence project and plumbing repairs.

Comfort has completed mission stops in Belize, Guatemala, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Panama since deploying in April. Additional stops are planned for Colombia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Honduras.

Continuing Promise is a U.S. Southern Command-sponsored and U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet-conducted deployment to conduct civil-military operations including humanitarian-civil assistance, subject matter expert exchanges, medical, dental, veterinary and engineering support and disaster response to partner nations and to show the United States' continued support and commitment to Central and South America and the Caribbean.


For more news from Continuing Promise, visit www.navy.mil/.