Working Environments
Crewmembers aboard the hospital ship USNS Comfort “man the rails” as Comfort returns to her home of Baltimore from deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
USNS Comfort
Care that Knows No Boundaries
From her station in Baltimore, Maryland, the USNS Comfort stands as a symbol of Navy Medicine. Even more impressive is when she sets sail to prove just how much we care – as a nation and as a people.
Equivalent to the height of a 10-story building and the length of three football fields, the USNS Comfort is used for medical and surgical care in support of:
- Amphibious task forces
- Marine Corps
- Army
- Air Force elements
- And humanitarian outreach
“I think the crew proved themselves as not only model ambassadors of American diplomacy, but also as a highly adaptable, well-trained workforce capable of responding to a variety of challenges and situations.”— CAPT Bob Kapcio,
Comfort’s Mission Commander
In Service to All of Humanity
Speaking of outreach, there’s much to be said about coming to the aid of others. Kapcio references the Comfort’s four-month humanitarian mission to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2007. On this depolyment, Comfort staff – working with other military, Project Hope and Operation Smile crews – treated more than 98,000 patients in a dozen countries:
- Dispensing more than 24,000 pairs of glasses
- Supplying 122,000 medications
- Pulling nearly 4,000 teeth
- Providing about 32,000 vaccinations
The USNS Comfort is routinely deployed following disasters around the world…and right at home. In 2005, the ship set sail for the Gulf of Mexico in a record 2½ days to provide medical assistance to the Gulf Coast following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Sailing Under the Flag of Hope
Navy medical personnel staff the Comfort’s hospital, known as the Medical Treatment Facility. When activated, it becomes a 250-, 500- or 1,000-bed mobile hospital. Comfort can hold a team of up to 1,215 Navy Doctors, Dentists, Nurses and support staff. Additional Navy military personnel come from shore-based Navy facilities throughout the eastern seaboard.
The Comfort was built as a San Clemente class tanker in 1976. She was converted to a hospital ship and delivered to the Navy on December 1, 1987. Her official maximum speed is 17 knots, and she has tanks that hold 300,000 gallons of safe drinking water.
Consider this: If a tanker can be transformed into a symbol of hope, imagine what the USNS Comfort does for the health-care professionals aboard.