QUANG NGAI, Vietnam –
The United States and Vietnam began humanitarian assistance operations here
March 23 as part of Operation Pacific Angel 15-3.
Entering its eighth
year, PACANGEL ensures the region's militaries are prepared to work together to
address humanitarian crises. Since 2007, PACANGEL operations have improved the
lives of tens of thousands of people.
"Providing humanitarian assistance
is an important part of our United States Pacific Command," said Lt. Col. Darcie
Yoshimoto, PACANGEL 15-3 mission commander. "Working with our host nation to
provide medical and engineering projects directly impacts and helps the people
in the Quang Ngai province of Vietnam."
Lead by Pacific Air Forces,
PACANGEL is a total force, joint and combined operation involving more than 45
U.S. military members who are deployed to Vietnam to partner with local
non-governmental organizations and host-nation military forces to provide
various functions. This includes health-services outreach, engineering civil
action programs, as well as various subject matter expert
exchanges.
Medical professionals and civil engineers from the U.S. Army,
Marines, Navy and Air Force set up temporary clinics to provide general health,
optometry, dental, physical therapy, pediatrics and engineering programs for at
least 2,500 patients, according to Yoshimoto, who is deployed from 713th Combat
Operations Squadron, Detachment 1 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam,
Hawaii.
Pacific Angel participants are also renovating two schools and
two district medical clinics by providing structural, roofing, plumbing,
electrical and painting repairs.
For Senior Airman Hoang Nguyen, 18th
Civil Engineer Squadron water and fuel maintenance specialist from Yokota Air
Base, Japan, helping to improve the living conditions for others gives him a
sense of pride.
"The majority of my relatives live within hours of this
province, so it feels good to be part of this operation and have a direct impact
on their lives," Nguyen said. "Their standard of living is different from ours,
so we are retrofitting the plumbing of two schools and two medical clinics with
up-to-date and higher quality parts to ensure sanitary conditions and that these
upgrades last a lot longer."
Although this is the fifth time U.S.
military members have worked with host-nation military personnel to improve
quality of life throughout the region, this is the first multilateral operation
to take place in Vietnam, with members of the Royal Cambodian, Republic of
Singapore and Royal Thai air forces.