The USNS Mercy, dubbed the Hospital at Sea, due to its capabilities and equipment that’s comparable to a modern onshore hospital, has made port on Guam. The mercy’s facilities include four radiology suites, twelve operating rooms, one ct scanner, a thousand patient beds, eighty intensive care beds and one isolation ward.

Its mission: to provide rapid, flexible and mobile acute health support services to the armed forces ashore and naval forces afloat the seas. The ship also provides acute medical care in disasters, while also providing humanitarian relief. They’re here for the Pacific Partnership 2022, the largest multinational humanitarian and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the indo-pacific. Capt. Charles Maynard of the Royal Navy is the deputy mission commander of Pacific Partnership ‘22.

"This is the first time in four years that Mercy’s visited Guam and the first time in four years that we’ve been able to use the full capabilities of Mercy to her full effect," he said. "So we’ll be undertaking a series of mission stops in the western Pacific and Oceania. Bringing together all of our fantastic experts who are onboard, medical staff. We also have engineers, veterinarians, we have a pacific fleet band with us, so we’ll be doing a host of activities during our mission stops, working alongside our partners to take forward cooperation and understanding of humanitarian and disaster relief activities."

Commanding officer of the mercy, Capt. Timothy Quast, spoke on how important the island is to the Pacific Partnership Mission.

"Guam is extremely important," he said. "We are taking on a host of personnel, logistics, we’re spending a significant amount of time here."

Capt. Quast added that while they're here, they're looking forward to getting involved with some community events, including beach clean-ups, community relations events and doing some flag-planting in Asan Beach in preparation for Memorial Day.

Three sailors with Guam roots also serve aboard the mercy and are taking part in the PP22 mission. Hospitalman apprentice Teagan Mantanona and hospital corpsman second class Joanna Ramilo shared why they love serving aboard the hospital at sea.

"So far, it’s been being able to not only share different cultures but also to be aware of how other people live," Matanona said. "We have our own idea of how life is supposed to be, but other people have a completely different way of seeing life and being able to see different countries and their way of living, I think, is quite extraordinary."

"To be able to see all these places and to travel and to also help these countries," Ramilo said. "They don’t have certain resources and it feels great to be able to give back and to be a part of that humanitarian mission."

The Mercy has one of the largest trauma facilities in the United States and can staff up to 1,200 medical personnel. When the mercy is activated, it can transition to full operating status in five days.