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U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Departs Baltimore

Navy Newsstand

01/06/2003

From Military Sealift Command Public Affairs

BALTIMORE (NNS) -- U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) sailed from Baltimore today (Jan. 6) in support of the global war on terrorism. Comfort, maintained in reduced operating status in a Baltimore berth, departed with a core element of its medical staff aboard to prepare the medical treatment facility (MTF) in the event it is needed for future contingencies.

Comfort's 1,000-bed medical treatment facility, one of the largest trauma centers in the United States, can provide emergency, on-site care for U.S. combatant forces deployed in wartime or other operations. Comfort's secondary mission is to provide full hospital services to support U.S. disaster relief and humanitarian operations worldwide.

Comfort is crewed by 61 civilian mariners who operate the ship. For this deployment, more than 300 active-duty Navy personnel, predominately from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., were embarked. The ship's hospital staff at full operating status is approximately 1,200.

One of two Navy hospital ships, Comfort is 894-feet long and essentially a hospital offering a full spectrum of surgical and medical services within a ship. The ship is equipped to care for the victims of all types of medical trauma, including the effects of a chemical or biological attack.

The medical and hospital support personnel are active-duty military. When the MTF is ordered to fully activate, additional personnel may fly from the United States and join the ship.

Comfort has participated in events around the world since being delivered to the Navy in 1987. She served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990; she assisted with the Haitian migrant operations in the Caribbean in 1994; she activated Sept. 11, 2001, in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center; and she participated in various multinational exercises. Comfort deployed in the summer to conduct joint medical exercise in the Baltics.

Military Sealift Command (MSC), the ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense, operates approximately 120 civilian-crewed, noncombatant active ships around the world. MSC ship missions vary from the transport and afloat prepositioning of defense cargo to underway replenishment and other direct support to Navy ships at sea and at-sea data collection for the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies.