Comfort Leaves Spanish Media, VIPs in Awe
Story Number: NNS030122-05
1/22/2003
ROTA, Spain (NNS) -- At 894-feet long and weighing more than 70,000 tons, Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort is more than impressive; it's imposing. Painted white with huge red crosses, the ship brings mobile, rapid medical response capability, including acute medical and surgical care, to any potentially hostile area to support American armed forces.
Last week, Comfort pulled into Naval Station Rota, Spain, to refuel and take on supplies. While in port, she hosted 22 distinguished visitors, Spanish flag officers and medical officers for a familiarization tour. Comfort also allowed 29 media representatives from all over Spain to board the ship and interview Sailors and medical staff.
Both groups were impressed with what they saw. The media pressed the Comfort staff for answers on why they were here.
"Right now, we're prepositioning in support of President Bush's war on terrorism," said Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Gottlieb through an interpreter, Lt. Yvonne Garcia, a bilingual doctor assigned to Comfort.
Gottlieb, Garcia and a handful of other Spanish-speaking Comfort crew members showed their visitors the emergency room, which they called a 'casualty assistance center.'
The tour also included visits to an operating room, X-ray room, MRI facility, helicopter pad and others facilities.
"We have an X-ray room and CT (computed tomography imaging) scan capability, just like you'd find in any of the best trauma centers in the country," Gottlieb said.
Journalist 2nd Class Jennifer Maurer, the ship's public affairs officer, told the visitors the ship is a "floating hospital," making full-size elevators, stairwells and passageways necessary. With a 1,000-bed ward, a morgue and the rest of what was seen on the tour, few could argue Comfort's capabilities as a complete, fully functional hospital. The only difference is Comfort functions from the sea.
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