Cries of joy echoed across a Navy pier in San Diego Monday as the well-known hospital ship USNS Mercy returned from deployment in the Indo-Pacific, where China is trying to strike security partnerships with long-standing U.S. allies.
Many of the ship's 800 crew members streamed into the arms of friends and family at Naval Air Station North Island as Mercy wrapped up a five-month mission just two days before Valentine's Day.
Monique Salas of San Diego was holding a sign that read "Will you be my Valentine?" to catch the attention of her boyfriend, Bryan Cruz, an interior communications electrician 2nd class. He found her and gave her a hearty kiss.
The 894-foot Mercy — which has a distinctive white hull adorned with a huge red cross — had visited the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia.
The mission was primarily to provide medical care and humanitarian and disaster relief training to the Pacific islands. The Mercy — which has participated in such conflicts as Operation Desert Storm — has so far performed more than 410 surgeries and 12,000 dental procedures during the deployment.
The Indo-Pacific is a region of growing tension. China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan and has harassed some U.S. warships that have been working to keep international shipping lanes open in the South China Sea.
The Biden administration has said it will rapidly come to Taiwan's aid if an invasion occurs.
China, in turn, has been trying to cultivate partnerships with such American allies as the Solomon Islands, which signed a security agreement with Beijing two years ago.
The USS Carl Vinson and USS Theodore Roosevelt strike groups, which are both based in San Diego, are currently deployed to the Indo-Pacific. It is likely that a third San Diego-based carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, will deploy to that region later this year.
Meanwhile, the Navy's newest ship, the expeditionary sea base USS John L. Canley, will join the Navy's active fleet on Saturday when it is commissioned at Naval Air Station North Island.
The 784-foot ship, which was built at General Dynamics-NASSCO in San Diego, is a new type of ship that's designed to deploy troops and equipment in regions where the U.S. doesn't have easy access to land bases and seaports.
This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.
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