Pacific Partnership, Pacific Friendship visit Gio Linh Center for Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities in Vietnam

QUANG TRI, Vietnam – U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, and multinational personnel assigned to Pacific Partnership 2026 (PP26) and Pacific Friendship 2026 (PF26) visited the Gio Linh Center for Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities for a community outreach and engagement event in Quang Tri, Vietnam, June 24, 2026.

The Gio Linh Center for Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities provides daily care, physical therapy, and subsistence support for disabled children and agent orange victims. The center serves as a critical lifeline for vulnerable youth in the region and is heavily supported by the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange and Dioxin.

“This rehabilitation center can serve up to 60 children,” said Thai Vinh Lieu, Chairman of the Quang Tri Provincial Association for Persons with Disabilities, Agent Orange Victims, Disability Support, and Children's Rights Protection. “I am very happy to see the amount of activities that the Pacific Partnership and Pacific Friendship team prepared today. The children and their families were very happy with sharing music, drawing with the children, and health check ups.”

Volunteers interacted with 47 children at the center through table games, arts and crafts, and other recreational activities. The event provided an opportunity for PP26 and PF26 personnel to connect with the youth of Vietnam during the first mission stop of the year.

“Spending time with these remarkable children is a meaningful experience for our Pacific Partnership team and provides us an avenue to build genuine relationships with the Vietnamese community,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Robert Reyes, mission commander of PP26. “Hopefully we’ve made a positive impact on the lives of these children and their families today, and in turn, that impact enables us to strengthen the bonds that connect us to the citizens of Vietnam.”

Optometrists provided ocular health screenings while oral surgeons performed dental examinations and oral hygiene education for children and Go Linh Center staff, reflecting PP26 and PF26’s joint commitment to strengthening community health resilience and multinational relationships in the Quang Tri province area.

“It is nice to be able to have a service that we can offer while building relations, interacting with healthcare providers in the different military services, and experiencing a new culture,” said U.S. Army Col. Leslie Oakes, a pediatric dentist assigned to PF26. “Heathcare is a universal language, and it’s truly a Partnership and Friendship event.”

For several service members, the visit to the center was their first time experiencing a community outreach and engagement event in their military careers.

“It was a lot of fun to sit down with the kids, color, play games, and it was very fulfilling to spend time with them,” said U.S. Navy Musician 3rd Class Logan Neifer. “I think that we were generally well received and that they really appreciated us being there with them.”

Quang Tri, Vietnam, is the first mission stop for PP26. Follow-on mission stops are scheduled to take place in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste.

About Pacific Partnership: Now in its 22nd iteration, the Pacific Partnership series is the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster management preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific. Pacific Partnership works collaboratively with host and partner nations to enhance regional interoperability and disaster response capabilities, increase security and stability in the region, and foster new and enduring friendships in the Indo-Pacific.

About Pacific Friendship: Pacific Friendship is an annual U.S. Army Pacific-led bilateral engagement focusing on the U.S.-Vietnamese People’s Army’s humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR), as well as various medical and engineering activities to advance the mutual interest of a free and open Indo-Pacific

For updates and multimedia from Pacific Partnership 2026 and Pacific Friendship 2026, follow #PacificPartnership, #PP26, #PacificFriendship and #PF26 on social media or visit: https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/PacificPartnership and https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/PacificFriendship.