The 3,000 plus far-flung islands which make up Micronesia cover an area the size of the United States, yet have an above water land mass less than that of the State of Rhode Island.

The area is comprised of a number of island nations, including the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), each with populations of around 50,000, the two island groups Canvasback has been serving since 1986. This region proved strategic in World War II, where many pivotal battles were fought.

These island groups were also United States protectorates until recent years, when each signed a compact of free association with the U.S. and set about developing their own provisional governments.  The compact loosens ties and reduces aid over a period of years.  However, the U.S. maintains responsibility for many things in these islands, including defense.

The FSM's 24 and the Marshall's 62 inhabited outer islands are truly a world that time forgot. Most of the tiny, palm-tufted coral islands range to only a few miles long and under a mile wide.  Several dozen to a few hundred people live mainly off the limited land and surrounding sea; the few dollars they make by harvesting copra purchase kerosene, laundry soap and batteries, plus white rice, flour, sugar, and shortening.

Isolation, poor education and few financial resources are just some of the major problems facing these islands.  But the worst of these crises lies in health care. Few of the people have ever seen a physician or a dentist in their lives; their tiny, ill-stocked island dispensaries dangle at the end of a tenuous supply line which never reaches far enough.