The Backbone of the Mission: Reservists Strengthen Pacific Partnership 2026

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – During Pacific Partnership 2026 (PP26), from the pre-planning conferences to the mission stops in country, U.S. Armed Forces Reserve Component service members have held an integral active role in directly advancing the mission, working alongside active duty, host nation, and partner nation forces to deliver a variety of humanitarian assistance and disaster preparedness engagements across the Indo-Pacific region.

For the reservists participating, it has been an opportunity to put their military training and civilian expertise into action in Vietnam, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Malaysia, and the Philippines, along the mission’s four lines of effort (LOE): medical, engineering, disaster management, and host nation outreach events.

Reservists are integrated throughout PP26, serving alongside active-duty personnel at every level of the mission, to include its senior leadership: U.S. Navy Capt. Robert Reyes, mission commander of PP26, and U.S. Navy Command Master Chief Eric Zimmermann, command master chief of PP26. Both leaders have served in previous iterations of the mission in various positions of responsibility and authority across the command structure.

According to Zimmermann, this is the first iteration of Pacific Partnership where both the mission commander and command master chief are reservists. Additionally, this year has had a larger footprint of reservist support than was typical for previous iterations.

“Historically this has been an all active-duty mission, but to support the manpower requirements for this mission, every year Sailors are pulled from the waterfront and from warships to support Pacific Partnership in an smaller individual augmentee (IA) construct,” said Zimmermann.

IA assignments are designated billets service members fulfill away from their commands, bringing specialized skills and expertise to active-duty units and missions where additional personnel are needed to accomplish the military’s operational requirements.

“For this year’s mission, we were able to leverage the strategic depth of the reserve force to support the national security mission that Pacific Partnership is with an all-IA construct, while still enabling the U.S. Navy as a force to maintain our warfighting readiness on the waterfront, and still executing here with a high degree of success in the Indo-Pacific,” said Zimmermann.

The benefit of utilizing reservists to support the mission is they often bring specialized skills and experience from their civilian careers while bridging gaps in manning, providing a unique perspective and additional technical expertise enhances the mission, added Zimmermann.

“A great example from a continuity standpoint is the Army civil affairs specialists we have on the team, all reservists,” said Zimmermann. “They are a staple of Pacific Partnership, which is fundamentally a disaster preparedness mission, and they bring their highly specialized skill set to support the core of this mission, all reservists, every year, in every country, supporting one of our lines of effort.”

For the disaster management LOE, U.S. Army Reserve civil affairs specialists have leveraged their expertise by conducting interagency disaster preparedness symposiums, with tabletop and field training exercises focused on earthquakes and tsunami responses. They also conducted subject matter expert exchanges with first responders from urban search and rescue teams, multinational military dive and salvage divers and undersea medical officers, bolstering the capabilities of niche specialties throughout the region. They also met with religious and community leaders at each mission stop, covering topics such as cultural sensitivities in disaster response and how anticipating community needs enables better preparation for natural disasters.

“My civilian career has given me significant experience working in a joint environment and alongside allies and partners, so the dynamics of Pacific Partnership were familiar to me,” said U.S. Army Capt. Noppamas Suttinun, PP26’s mission disaster management LOE lead. “What has stood out to me most is that disaster management is ultimately about people and relationships. Technical capabilities are important, but building trust and understanding between organizations is what allows those capabilities to come together when they are needed. This is a great contrast and comparison of how reserve expertise can contribute to a mission that depends heavily on collaboration across military, government, and civilian organizations.”

Military nurses and health care practitioners for the medical LOE have been busy at work, conducting community health engagements (CHE) and participating in side by side and subject matter expert exchanges with host nation doctors and nurses. For reservists who practice medicine in their civilian careers, these engagements provide an opportunity to draw from both their military and civilian experiences, bringing a unique perspective to collaboration with health care professionals at each mission stop.

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Danielle Sterner, a dietitian assigned to the medical LOE, credited her active-duty experience in Guam for expanding her knowledge of Indo-Pacific culture and familiarity with regional foods. Her civilian healthcare experience of working in acute care, outpatient, and rural hospitals proved to be invaluable during the CHEs and professional medical exchanges.

“Working for the medical LOE in this area of responsibility has been a great learning opportunity to broaden knowledge on specific areas such as pediatric malnutrition, cultural and religious food traditions, and food safety and nutrition needs for specialized populations such as maternity and pediatrics,” said Sterner. “For this stop, I was able to bring my work experience from a variety of civilian clinic care settings that contributed to my scope of knowledge in advising the community here. I also have more experience with lower income, elderly populations, and complex medical conditions from working at a Level II trauma center.”

According to Zimmermann, military reservists’ ability to balance civilian careers with military obligations, their training, and their capacity to adapt to ever-changing environments, regardless of specialty, added to the mission’s capabilities.

“We have shown what right looks like in a forward-deployed, afloat environment, integrating active duty with reservists,” said Zimmermann. “I hope that this mission can be a successful model for active-duty units, stateside and OCONUS [outside the Continental U.S.], and the rest of the Navy that have reserve Sailors assigned to their units.”

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

For more information about Pacific Partnership visit www.facebook.com/pacificpartnership, www.instagram.com/pacific_partnership/ or https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/PacificPartnership. ###

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