The amphibious ship USS Iwo Jima enter Suriname offshore waters on October 28, 2010 as part of the Continuing Promise (CP) 2010 humanitarian/civic mission. Suriname was the last country for Latin America and the Caribbean to receive free health care, engineering and veterinary aid onshore and offshore.
Apart from the aid three platoons of US marines were scheduled to conduct a jungle training in the country.s dense forests.
Suriname government officials and US Embassy officials visited the ship on Saturday, October 30,2010. In the afternoon the first group of Surinamese patients were flown in for surgery offshore.
The US operation was halted after four days as its mission divert from its CP 2010 humanitarian/civic mission to disaster relief operations in Haiti following landfall from hurricane Tomas.
ArtnPhoto/ Ranu Abhelakh & Edward Troon