Ambassador Glazer and Salvadoran President visit USS Boxer
May 27, 2008

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The USS Boxer arrived in El Salvador on May 19, exemplifying the strong ties of friendship and cooperation binding the United States and this Central American country.  The  ship’s medical  contingent will spend 12 days working alongside local medical providers at El Salvador’s Miravalle school (May 19-24) and El Sunza school (May 25-30) providing primary medical care to nearly 6,000 Salvadoran citizens.  The team will also spend ten days at El Salvador’s Sonsonate Regional Hospital performing hospital equipment repairs and training hospital staff, while also sharing ideas and experiences on best practices for long-term public health solutions.

While anchored off the coastline, Boxer’s medical facilities will host ten surgical patients a day over nine days.  Surgeries will include cyst and gall bladder removal and minor hernia repair.
In addition to the medical assistance the ship will provide, the embarked Navy Seabee Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit will join local civil engineers for structural renovations, along with road and drainage repair at El Sunza and Miravalle schoolhouses.
 “By working side-by-side with our friends in El Salvador, they can learn how we work, we can learn how they work and when emergent situations arise, we can both respond more efficiently by already understanding each other’s capabilities,” said the Boxer’s Commanding Officer, Capt. Matthew J. McCloskey. 

The Pacific Phase of Continuing Promise 2008 is one of two humanitarian and civic assistance deployments planned for the United States Southern Command area of focus for 2008.  El Salvador is the Boxer’s second stop – the ship first anchored in Guatemala and will continue to Peru after El Salvador.  The second Continuing Promise deployment will be conducted by the USS Kearsarge in the Caribbean. 

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