The U.S. Navy expeditionary fast transport USNS Burlington (T-EPF 10) will deploy July and August to the region as part of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet’s Continuing Promise 2024 mission. After several months of detailed planning, USNS Burlington is scheduled to visit Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia, and Panama during the nearly two month-long mission.
Continuing Promise 2024 marks the 14th mission to the region since 2007 and the second aboard USNS Burlington. The mission will foster goodwill, strengthen existing partnerships with partner nations, and encourage the establishment of new partnerships among countries, nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations.
The focus during each mission stop will be working alongside partner nation medical personnel to provide direct patient care and technical expertise in community clinics to improve medical readiness, strengthen partnerships, and enhance the combined capabilities of the U.S. Navy and partner nations to respond to public health disasters and humanitarian crises. 30 U.S. Navy medical professionals, including general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, radiologists, dentists, optometrists, and biomedical technicians from Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command and Naval Medicine Readiness and Logistics Command bring their expertise to this year’s iteration of Continuing Promise.
“During Continuing Promise 2024, we’re working side-by-side and step-by-step with our partners,” said U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Jim Aiken, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet commander. “Our investment into the region is our enduring relationships, and we are committed to ensuring improved interoperability and collaborative regional security together. We gain so much by this opportunity to serve alongside true professionals.”
The Continuing Promise team includes a U.S. Army veterinary team from the 248th Medical Detachment (Veterinary Service Support), which will collaborate with host nation colleagues to provide direct public health education and animal care at local veterinary organizations in-country. U.S. Navy Seabees from Navy Mobile Construction Battalion 1 will assist in host nation-led community engineering projects. U.S. Navy experts will host seminars and training exercises with host nation civilian officials and military professionals covering disaster preparedness and response. These exchanges aim to support host nation facilities, improve readiness, and empower local and national officials with the knowledge and experience to act with confidence during emergencies.
Continuing Promise will also continue its popular series of seminars on the prevention of gender-based violence in support of the mission’s Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) initiative.
“Actions certainly speak louder than words and Continuing Promise 2024 will certainly demonstrate that,” said U.S. Navy Captain Scott Maloney, Continuing Promise 2024 mission commander. “It is a way for us to collaborate and work alongside our partners in the Caribbean, Central and South America and make a positive impact in local communities at each stop.”