Posted on 10/16/2007 6:17:38 PM PDT by SandRat
NORFOLK (NNS) -- The hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) stopped at Naval Station Norfolk Oct. 15, to allow approximately 500 crew members to return to their home units and parent commands before Comfort travels to its lay berth in Baltimore.
Comfort completed its four-month humanitarian assistance and training deployment to 12 Latin American and Caribbean nations Oct. 7.
Comfort served as an enabling platform for U.S. medical professionals, including U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, Air Force, Army and non-government organizations Project Hope and Operation Smile, to provide more than 386,000 medical “encounters,” to more than 98,000 patients in a dozen countries. Services provided ranged from primary adult and pediatric care to optometry and dentistry.
Comfort traveled more than 11,680 nautical miles during the course of its deployment. More than 24,000 pairs of prescription and reading glasses were dispensed, along with over 122,000 medications. Comfort dentists pulled nearly 4,000 teeth and crew members provided roughly 32,000 vaccinations for a variety of diseases.
Adm. Jonathan Greenert, commander, Fleet Forces Command, visited the crew aboard Comfort as they pulled into Norfolk.
“This is truly a rare visit to have Comfort here, but it’s a very special visit,” said Greenert. “We’re used to having warships come instead of peace ships, and what you’ve done is absolutely extraordinary.”
Greenert welcomed those who were returning to Norfolk and offered his thanks to the rest of the crew.
“You’ve truly invested in our future in the Western hemisphere,” he said. “What you’ve done is astounding, touching directly about 400,000 people and probably influencing millions and millions of others.
"You’ve shown us the value of the synergy of interagency cooperation. You’ve demonstrated to us the value and the great return on investment on a mission like this. Also, you’ve trained numerous people for future missions for humanitarian assistance or disaster relief and that is absolutely priceless.”
The deployment was a training and education opportunity for military medical personnel to practice disaster relief scenarios in real-life situations. Comfort has responded previously to major crises in the United States, including the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. Comfort’s sister ship, USNS Mercy (T-AH 19), has also responded to similar natural disasters in the Pacific region.
“This deployment was an outstanding opportunity for service members and volunteers alike to learn about humanitarian assistance situations and capabilities,” said Capt. Bob Kapcio, Comfort’s mission commander. “I think the crew proved themselves as not only model ambassadors of American diplomacy, but also as a highly adaptable, well-trained work force capable of responding to a variety of challenges and situations.”
Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28 moved 9,400 passengers by air, and utility boats operated by Military Sealift Command civilian mariners transported 15,000 patients between the ship and shore. Comfort’s doctors also performed 1,170 surgeries during the deployment.
“It’s great that we exceeded the president’s goal of 85,000 patients,” said Kapcio. “But for us, it was more than about numbers. It was about making a difference in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to reinforce our partnerships. I am certain we’ve laid the groundwork for a great collaboration in the future.”
During the mission, Comfort partnered with 12 host nations: Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname.
In each country, teams of medical professionals traveled in country to locations pre-selected by a pre-deployment site survey team based on host-nation recommendations. On average, Comfort operated three to four care sites in each country.
At the care sites, more than 100 crew members offered primary adult and pediatric care, pre-surgical screenings, dentistry, optometry, and other services daily depending on mission capabilities and feasibility. Patients referred for surgery were brought aboard Comfort for those procedures.
Seabees from Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 202 also provided construction, maintenance and repair services at various worksites throughout the deployment.
Project Hope volunteers from various medical fields worked collaboratively with the Comfort crew members, and Operation Smile volunteers came aboard Comfort in Nicaragua and Peru to perform more than 50 cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries. Operation Smile also worked alongside Comfort crew members at one of the work sites in Colombia.
Additionally, $100,000 in donated medical supplies and equipment was delivered to host-nation health care providers in each of the 12 countries Comfort visited. Language barriers proved a challenge throughout Comfort’s deployment. Only three of 12 countries visited spoke English. The translation difficulties were overcome using a plethora of translators, often paired specifically to one doctor or care provider. Other translators assisted with patient administration and check-in.
Patient administration was yet another challenge. Individuals assigned as patient trackers monitored the patients’ progression of their treatment at care sites. Patient trackers also tallied numbers of total patients seen, and their type of treatment.
The 894-foot Mercy-class ship was delivered to the Navy in 1987 and is a converted oil super tanker. The ship was designed to operate in combat situations as a mobile, flexible medical platform for combat casualties. Its single galley is the largest shipboard galley in the Navy.
Navy Bump
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