And moving on...

There was quite a display today of ships out and about the USNS Mercy while she is inport Ambon, Indonesia. This is the second to last stop of the Indonesian visit during her Pacific Partnership 10 deployment. The Indonesian president was supposed to arrive for a tour of the ship but that did not happen and he departed Ambon City after a ceremony and a pretty decent display of military power and cooperation during a ship Parade. I'll try to find some pictures but nothing decent is online right now. The only decent picture was this one with the ship in background. Actually it was quite impressive and I'm sure the Indonesian people were glad to have all the tourism. I can say that after digging around there was a ton of mis-information that was put out to the people. I personally saw 3 school girls come to the Pier after tours were secured and tear up because we wouldn't let them on the ship. 

Alas, the tours were only for press and local dignitaries of course. The confusion might have been that the public was able to go to the multiple medical sites to receive important and sometimes life changing health care. Ship tour or operate on my cleft pallet.... I can see where it may have been lost in translation. As far as a marching band, I didn't know this was the 1950's and that's the best Big Navy had to offer. The reality was a pretty kick ass navy band that did everything from playing a small quartet during a dinner show to singing "My Humps" or some other vapid pop stuff that the locals most likely thought was still a #1 hit in the states.