November 2023 — MHCE Newsletter

WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 23
Among new programs this
deployment of its hospital
Islands and Kiribati to
when they hear one of
year, Feinberg said, “we’re
ship Peace Ark on its own
reinvest in ties in island
their popular songs in their
excited to be doing some
tour of Oceania.
nations.
language.”
cataract surgeries, which we
did not do last time, which
is going to be a fantastic
process because it’ll literally
be giving many people the
gift of sight.”
He said that in the Marshall
Islands medical personnel
will also do a mission
aboard the Liwatoon-mour,
a civilian hospital ship.
The Japanese Ministry of
Health donated the vessel
to the RMI last year on a
voyage to the island nation’s
remote atolls for a mission
supporting tuberculosis
eradication.
In the Solomon Islands,
Over the span of 79 days
the ship and its crew visited
Kiribati — an island nation
south of Hawaii — as well
as Tonga, Vanuatu, the
Solomon Islands and East
Timor. Chinese state-run
news outlet Xinhua reported
that the Peace Ark and its
crew “used boundless love
and superb medical skills
to serve as messengers of
health, peace, and friendship
“ during what it called a
“pragmatic “ mission.
The U.S. has been trying to
step up engagement in the
Pacific islands as Chinese
influence and investment in
Feinberg said that one of
the things he’s come to
appreciate is the cultural
aspect of his mission.
The Pacific Fleet Band
is traveling along and is
learning and practicing
songs from each of the
countries they are visiting.
Feinberg said that when the
band joined the voyage in
2022, he was “skeptical, “
believing they would take
up space on a mission that
was supposed to be about
medicine but that “there was
like 24, 000 people who saw
the band, and it means a lot
when, when other people,
“One of the things that I
love about the power Pacific
Partnership is I have an
incredibly diverse crew, “
said Feinberg. “Anywhere
we go, I got somebody
who looks like you. We
went to Vietnam last year,
I got sailors who speak
Vietnamese, we went to the
Philippines, I got a sailor
that speaks Tagalog ... that
means a lot because America
is very diverse and when we
go to other countries, we
were very quickly able to
show ‘hey, we’ve got a lot
in common,‘ and it’s pretty
fantastic.”
service members will be
the region has grown.
supporting the regional
Pacific Games, which this
year will take place in
Honiara.
In 2019 Kiribati and the
Solomon Islands cut
diplomatic ties with Taiwan
and established relations
“The Solomon Islands had
with Beijing. Both countries
asked last year for us to
have since joined the Belt
come back to support the
and Road Initiative, a
Pacific Games,“ Feinberg
series of Chinese-funded
said. “We’re coming back,
infrastructure
projects
we’re going to be supporting
aimed at promoting trade
the games themselves,
with China.
with over 100 man-hours
out there supporting the
athletes, the spectators ... as
well as supporting the host
nation and planning some
disaster responses should
that happen during the
games.”
Last year, Solomon Islands
Prime Minister Manasseh
Sogavare quietly drafted
a defense agreement with
China that only became
public when it was leaked
to local media. After years
of focusing attention and
Mercy’s deployment begins
resources elsewhere, the
not long after the Chinese
U.S. has since opened
navy wrapped up a summer
embassies in the Solomon