Over four months beginning in early August, Kearsarge planned to visit Nicaragua, Colombia, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, delivering free medical and engineering assistance to isolated, impoverished populations. It was actually the second phase of Operation Continuing Promise, which began in May when the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer made a humanitarian run down the Pacific side of Central and South America, eventually treating around 14,000 patients and conducting 127 surgeries, while an accompanying force of Seabees rebuilt eight schools and repaired roads.

Continuing Promise is just a single chapter in a much broader U.S. military "medical diplomacy" initiative in Latin America that began in earnest in summer 2007, with the four-month deployment of the hospital ship USNS Comfort. That trip resulted in some impressive figures: 1,170 surgeries, 32,322 immunizations and 24,242 pairs of glasses handed out.

—David Axe, Seapower Magazine