U.S. Public Health Service Lt. Nellis Patterson, a dental augmentee embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, cleans a Nicaraguan man's teeth at the Juan Comenius High School medical clinic during a Continuing Promise 2008 humanitarian assistance project. The amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge is the primary platform for the Caribbean phase of Continuing Promise, an equal-partnership mission involving the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Brazil, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.