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The hospital ship USNS Mercy will not be sent to the Philippines to help with typhoon relief, the Navy said Monday.
Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, ordered the ship on activation status Nov. 13 so that it could more quickly attain full operating status if needed to help with the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.
The order included moving personnel and equipment to the 894-foot ship, which is berthed in San Diego. Mercy was in a reduced operating status, which the Navy said is normal for a hospital ship.
Mercy was taken off activation status Monday.
Had the ship deployed in mid-November, it would have arrived in the Philippines in December, the Navy said.
The request for the Mercy never came from the Philippines, but China sent its 583-foot hospital ship Peace Ark, which arrived Sunday in Leyte Gulf and anchored about 11 miles from Tacloban city.
"Following the devastating typhoon, the medical situation in the Philippines has dramatically improved over the last two weeks with numerous U.S. and international care providers currently operating in impacted areas," said Cmdr. Steven Curry, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet.
THE amount of time required to get the hospital ship "into play in the Philippines," could be why no request came for the Mercy, Richard Rapoza, a spokes­man for U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, said last week.
This is why the Navy should consider making Hawaii the home port of that vessel, Rapoza said.
Hanabusa, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, recently asked the Navy to study the merits of moving the Mercy from San Diego to a "forward Pacific port" such as Pearl Harbor to be able to respond quicker to natural disasters and other emergencies in the region.
"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 relief), 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," Hanabusa said in a letter to Harris and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.
More than 250 crew and medical personnel were expected to sail with the Mercy and fly out to Hawaii and Guam to join the ship if it had been called to duty, the Navy said.
China’s embassy in the Philippines said the Peace Ark will play an important role in the relief efforts "as there is only one public hospital in Leyte city with a severe lack of operating rooms and intensive care units, while some injured are sent to other cities, even as far as Manila, for treatment."
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