Hanabusa Requests Study to Help Improve Response Time of Naval Hospital Ship During Disaster Relief Efforts

Statement

U.S. Representative Colleen Hanabusa (HI-01), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr., requesting a study to determine whether it would be viable to homeport the United States Naval Ship (USNS) Mercy in a forward Pacific port, such as Pearl Harbor.

USNS Mercy, a hospital ship currently homeported in San Diego, has been activated and is ready to deploy; however, if the vessel is deployed to the Philippines to provide medical assistance for Typhoon Haiyan recovery efforts, it would not arrive at its destination until sometime in December.

In the letter, Hanabusa writes, "There is no question that the U.S. military is better equipped to deliver assistance better than any force in the world, and our forward presence throughout the Asia-Pacific is what allowed our military to respond so quickly.

"Being from Hawaii, I have an appreciation for how large the Asia-Pacific region is, and understand that the tyranny of distance will make it an impossibility to ever be able to respond immediately to a situation like this. However, other units of the U.S. Navy, mainly the USS George Washington carrier battle group and several Marine Corps units forward stationed in Okinawa were able to arrive on scene in a matter of days due to their location.

She adds, "We have seen that one of the evolving roles of the U.S. military as we rebalance to the Asia-Pacific will be Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR), and know that Typhoon Haiyan will not be the last time the U.S. finds itself in need of quick response to help an ally. The USNS Mercy would be able to assist more quickly if based at a forward port, and provide the critical assistance needed to respond to emergency situations."

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