RAPOPO, Papua New Guinea (July 7, 2015) Capt. Christopher

RAPOPO, Papua New Guinea (July 7, 2015) Capt. Christopher Engdahl, mission commander for Pacific Partnership 2015, looks at a gravesite at the Rabaul (Bita Paka) War Cemetery. Service members from the U.S., Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Japan and civilians from non-governmental organizations assigned to the hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) visited the cemetery to lay wreaths and pay respects to those fallen during the World War II battles and other conflicts in the region. Mercy is currently in Papua New Guinea for its second mission port of PP15. Pacific Partnership is in its 10th iteration and is the largest annual multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. While training for crisis conditions, Pacific Partnership missions to date have provided real world medical care to approximately 270,000 patients and veterinary services to more than 38,999 animals. Additionally, the mission has provided critical infrastructure development to host nations through more than 180 engineering projects. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Christopher E. Tucker/Released)