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Chargé d’affaires Piper Campbell address the media at the welcome ceremony aboard the Mustin.
USS Mustin anchors off the coast of Sihanoukville for a four-day visit
Sihanouk Ville
October 10, 2008
The USS Mustin, a Arleigh-Burke class guided missile destroyer, dropped anchor off the coast of Sihanoukville on Saturday the 10th of October. Its arrival marks the third time a U.S. naval vessel has visited Cambodia, following the USS Gary and the USS Essex late last year. Prior to the ship’s arrival a Navy Seahawk helicopter carried the Chargé d’affaires Piper Campbell and the Governor of Sihanoukville Sbong Sarath to the vessel while still en route. They were treated to a VIP tour of the ship before the arrival of the Cambodian media which made the trip to the coast to cover the event. At the welcome ceremony the Deputy Commodore Charles Williams noted that the each visit by the Navy serves to strengthen the relationship between the nations’ navies, and that it provided the crew with a unique opportunity to work side by side with their Cambodian counterparts at a number of humanitarian projects including the remodel of a local primary school and the construction of a new maternity ward at a rural clinic in the region. In her remarks the Chargé stressed that while each visit is extraordinary in its own right, the very fact that such trips are becoming routine shows how far the relationship has evolved between the U.S. and Cambodia.
During its stay in port the crew of the Mustin has assisted in a number of humanitarian operations including a major medical and dental exercise which, at its conclusion, will have provided free care and medication to over 1000 residents in and around the Sakor Ou Chrou community which is located roughly thirty kilometers from Sihanoukville. While many of the other humanitarian projects were largely completed by the Seabee crew by the time the ship arrived, a number of volunteers from the Embassy joined their RCAF and US Navy colleagues in putting the final touches on the structures, mainly at the Hun Sen Krong Primary School in the heart of the city.
The ship’s outreach was not limited to improving infrastructure and health - the 7th fleet band which is also embarked on the vessel provided a free concert featuring rock music from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s to a crowd of over 4000 residents on one of the side streets of Sihanoukville. By the end of the concert the audience was clamoring for more, and the dance floor was an equal mix of sailors from the ship and local residents who clearly were enjoying what they saw.
