Heard this from Jim Dolbow at the Naval Institute Blog last night: the United States Naval Hospital Ship Comfort is preparing to get underway to Haiti. She is scheduled to leave by tomorrow morning. Dolbow writes:The COMFORT is slated to leave Baltimore, MD by Saturday morning.
Expects to arrive in Haiti by 22 January.
Equipped for 250 beds and 4 operating rooms.The Baltimore CBS affiliate ran a brief article last night, as referenced in the USNI blog.
USNS Comfort is a fantastically impressive ship. I had the opportunity to tour her back in October (see photo here of me, blue, speaking with a Navy medical officer, khaki, in one of the operating rooms) when I was aboard for the change of command of Rear Admiral Robert Reilly, who has been a great mentor to me, of Military Sealift Command.
In any case, Comfort is a shining example of the America at its best. Equipped with even more patient capacity than it looks like (from the numbers quoted above) they are able to open up on this short notice, she and her sister ship, Mercy, allow the Navy the park a giant floating hospital off any shore in the world in a matter of weeks. When in port she operates with a smaller, essential personnel, crew, but I was told in October that she can be activated and made ready to sail within five days. It seems the crew is putting that promise to the test this week. She participated last year in operation "Continuing Promise 09," providing medical aid ashore and in facilities afloat to people in nations scattered around the Caribbean and Latin America.
This morning, incidentally, Dolbow also drew attention to Coast Guard cutters offshore of Haiti, and the Naval Institute covered Marine Corps contributions there today as well. I am continually amazed not just at the response of our Sea Services, but of so many of our government agencies, corporations, non-governmental organizations, and private citizens this week. It is, like Comfort, truly America at its best.
