Two Generations, One Mission: Son Returns To Mother’s Homeland During Pacific Partnership 2026

SIBOLGA, Indonesia – Over 20 years ago, Dina Muralt, originally from Medan, deployed to Indonesia aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) as an interpreter, supporting medical relief efforts during the U.S. response to the “Boxing Day” tsunami.

Today, her son U.S. Navy Lt. MacSwayne Muralt is serving as the Pacific Partnership 2026 Indonesia mission stop country officer in charge, in a moment he says felt like the stars aligned.

“It does instill some pride in me knowing that I’m walking in [my mother’s] footsteps,” says Muralt. Muralt added that his mother was a U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps officer.

“When she was still in the Navy, she was selected as an individual augmentee as part of the initial response to the ‘Boxing Day’ tsunami,” says MacSwayne Muralt.

The “Boxing Day” tsunami, locally referred to as Pacific Ocean Tsunami 2004, occurred when a 9.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of North Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004, devastating multiple countries in the Southeast Asia region. The initial humanitarian response aboard Mercy laid the framework and served as the foundation for the creation of the annual Pacific Partnership mission that MacSwayne Muralt is currently supporting in Indonesia.

“It’s kind of a coincidental, full-circle moment that I’m here on the 20th anniversary of the Pacific Partnership mission and right after last year’s deadly disaster here in Indonesia,” says Muralt.

In November 2025, an equatorial tropical cyclone event affected the Indonesia provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra. The cyclone caused catastrophic flooding and landslides in the area.

During Pacific Partnership’s time in Indonesia, Muralt will be identifying and addressing the mission team personnel’s needs and concerns as they engage in their collective supporting lines of effort (LOEs) such as: host nation outreach events, community health engagements, disaster management workshops, and engineering renovation projects across North Sumatra. These LOEs are designed to enhance disaster management readiness to minimize any impacts from potential future natural disasters.

“As country OIC, I’m overall in charge of getting the main mission body here and making sure the mission body has everything they need to execute all of their engagements,” says Muralt. “In Indonesia, we have the engineering team to conduct renovations, the outreach team visiting several schools, the medical team providing medical engagements at local hospitals, and the disaster management team coordinating workshops with national level first responders.”

Pacific Partnership is designed to bolster each participating nation’s capacity for disaster preparedness and response. The mission aims to empower each nation’s ability to enhance their regional capabilities, so that each participating country is better prepared and equipped to respond effectively to natural disasters and other crises.

“[My mom is] very proud of me that I’m a part of this mission,” says MacSwayne Muralt. “Overall, the mission aims to strengthen U.S. and partner relationships by coordinating stronger disaster management tactics with each other."

While this is Muralt’s first time in North Sumatra, it’s the second time he’s visited the country. The first time, he traveled to Jakarta in 2018 with his mother to meet his extended family and re-experience his favorite Indonesian culinary signature dishes: rendang, nasi goreng, gado-gado, and bakso.

I grew up eating my mom’s cooking,” said Muralt. “She cooked for us all the time and whenever she couldn’t cook, my grandma cooked.”

Muralt explains that his mother incorporated a lot of western style cooking, ingredients and flavor into his favorite childhood dishes. Conversely, his maternal grandmother, Henni Leonardo, cooked with a style closer to local Indonesian cuisine.

“Although I can’t really speak the language, having eaten homemade Indonesian food growing up allowed me to better connect with my family and to the culture when we visited Indonesia for the first time,” said Muralt. “It has helped me to know a little about Indonesian culture on a personal level, and as country OIC, I am looking forward to seeing the positive effects that the Pacific Partnership mission can bring here in Sibolga.”

PP26’s mission in Sibolga represents more than just the culmination of months and months of meticulous planning and preparation come to fruition - it is also an opportunity for the San Diego native to connect with his mother’s Indonesian roots in the North Sumatra province, where she was born and raised before relocating to Jakarta.

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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