By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Celia Martin
SAN DIEGO – Ensign Justin Bruce, son of Rancho San Diego, California, residents, is serving aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy as part of Pacific Partnership 2024-1 (PP24-1).
Mercy departed its homeport in San Diego on Oct. 10, 2023, with more than 800 military medical personnel and support staff with the afloat medical treatment facility and more than 70 civil service mariners to participate in the 19th iteration of the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific.
This annual maritime humanitarian and civic assistance mission focuses on improving disaster response preparedness, resiliency and capacity while enhancing partnerships with participating nations and civilian humanitarian organizations throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
“This mission reflects the continued commitment to the region and dedication to disaster-response-readiness from the United States, our partners and allies, and the host nations,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Brian Quin, the mission commander for Pacific Partnership 2024-1.
Bruce is serving as a Nurse Corps officer responsible for patient care in a medical/surgical unit at Naval Medical Center in San Diego. On board Mercy, Bruce provides pre-operative and post-operative care alongside fellow nurses and corpsmen.
“Pulling into all the beautiful ports and taking care of folks who might not ever get the medical treatment they need is by far the most rewarding part of Pacific Partnership,” said Bruce. “Additionally, I am humbled to be doing this for the U.S. Navy on behalf of my country. I consider this once-in-a-lifetime op¬portunity to be an absolute privilege.”
Host nations invite the U.S. Navy and its mission partners to visit and conduct tailored humanitarian civic action activities in areas such as engineering, disaster response, host nation outreach events and public health. Additional criteria are also taken into consideration such as U.S. Navy and partner nation regional interests as well as host nation objectives and desires.
“This is my first mission in the Navy,” said Bruce. “I was previously a police officer for San Diego, so this is my second career. This mission is beyond different than the standard hospital care that I am used to providing. This mission is also different from standard hospital work in that it is a true team effort. Everyone in the ward has a job and everyone pitches in to get any and all jobs accomplished.”
The Pacific Partnership mis¬sion team aboard USNS Mercy will make stops in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Experts in the fields of engineering, medicine and disaster response will partner with each host to conduct civic-action projects, community health exchanges, medical symposiums, and disaster response training activities.
“Pacific Partnership has been humbling,” added Bruce. “Being in the United States, I forget that our standard of medical care is not a given around the world. I have been reminded that not everyone in the world has near-instant access to basic medical care. It is rewarding to be able to provide medical care to patients in the host nations. Pacific Partnership has also instilled a pride in my nursing work that I have not really felt before. I can feel and sense the patients I have seen are beyond grateful for the care received.”
The Pacific Partnership began in response to one of the world’s most catastrophic natural disas¬ters, the Dec. 2004 tsunami that devastated parts of Southeast Asia. The mission has evolved over the years from an empha¬sis on direct care to an operation focused on enhancing partnerships through host nation subject matter experts and civil-military exchanges.
