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Comfort Arrives in Panama, Continues Mission

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS070706-01
Release Date: 7/6/2007 10:11:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Tyler Jones, USNS Comfort Public Affairs

COLON, Panama (NNS) -- After caring for nearly 25,000 patients in Belize and Guatemala, the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) arrived in Colón, July 4, to continue it’s four-month humanitarian assistance deployment.

While in Panama, U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, U.S. Public Health Service, Canadian Forces and Project Hope personnel will continue providing the people of Latin America and the Caribbean with no-cost health care services including adult and pediatric primary care, dental care, optometry and other services.

Comfort will remain in Colón for nearly a week conducting operations at various locations.

Robert Leitch, director of the non-governmental organization Project Hope, said he and his organization look forward to continuing Comfort’s mission in Panama.

“We’re getting into a routine with the Navy,” Leitch said. “As we get more used to the things we’re doing, they’re becoming easier. We’re able to look at things now, and see more deeply. We’re throwing away pre-conceived notions, and realizing that there’s more to the mission than we thought. For many, this is the first time they’ve seen levels of poverty where people are sick as a result of being poor.”

“We have a lot of lessons learned we can take and use,” said Tech. Sgt. Scott Hauck, an Air Force medic, when commenting on previous port visits to Belize and Guatemala. “We’ve learned a lot and helped a lot of people, and now we have a lot of knowledge to go into Panama, and do things that much better.”

Over three million people live in the Republic of Panama, and of that, 37 percent live below the poverty line. Slightly smaller than South Carolina, Panama is a constitutional democracy formed in 1903 after secession from Colombia. Most notably, the nation is home to the 54 mile-long Panama Canal, through which Comfort will travel on its way to the Pacific for continued humanitarian assistance missions.

Comfort is on a 120-day humanitarian assistance deployment to Latin America and the Caribbean providing medical assistance to patients in more than a dozen countries. While deployed, Comfort is under the operational control of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and tactical control of Destroyer Squadron 24.