Biomedical engineer technicians (BMET) assigned to the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) teamed up with host nation biomedical technicians at Sonsonate Public Hospital and Hospital Militar Centrale June 17-25 in support of Continuing Promise 2015 (CP-15).

The team of 12 BMETs worked alongside each hospital's biomedical technicians to repair a variety of medical equipment in an effort to ensure proper care and maintenance can continue after the CP-15 mission has ended.

"We exchange knowledge with host nation BMETs to improve ourselves as biomedical engineer technicians," said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Randy Nash, a native of Old Town, Florida. "Whether it is speaking one-on-one or having that 'hands on' experience, we have been able to share information and learn a lot from one another."

Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Abraham Abakpa explained that each host nation counterpart provides the knowledge and skill set necessary to work alongside the CP-15 team, making the collaboration a great opportunity to work together.

"The technicians here are very creative. They use the limited resources that they have and still manage to get most equipment back up and running," said Abakpa, a native of Brooklyn, New York.

Abakpa added that working alongside the host nation technician has been very rewarding and he enjoys sharing their enthusiasm for the career field.

"It's a really good feeling working together with our counterparts to fix equipment that, in some cases, hasn't worked in years. The smiles and thanks we get from them once the equipment is repaired is indescribable," he said.

The team has made an impact on multiple hospitals and medical clinics since deploying in April for the humanitarian-civil assistance mission, repairing more than 170 pieces of medical equipment, conducting dozens of subject matter expert exchanges, and performing more than 240 technical evaluations in Belize, Guatemala, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador.

Additional exchanges and hospital visits are planned for the remaining mission stops in 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 U.S. support and commitment to Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

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