USNS Comfort to Move to Naval Station Norfolk

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The Navy announced Feb. 14 the hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) will shift its layberth from Baltimore, Md., to Naval Station (NS) Norfolk.

Comfort's current layberth contract in Baltimore runs through May 2013, if all options are exercised. The Navy plans to execute the layberth shift on or about March 1, 2013.

A number of factors contributed to the decision to shift the Military Sealift Command vessel to Norfolk, including an estimated annual savings of $1.7 million in the initial year and $2.1 million for following years; improved access to military facilities for the 59 permanent military members assigned to the ship; better use of the naval logistics hub and industrial base in Norfolk and a reduction in transit time to typical mission areas.

The move of Comfort from a commercial layberth in Baltimore to a government pier at NS Norfolk Pier 1 maximizes use of existing infrastructure and facilities, provides cost savings and operational advantages that enhance Comfort's mission capability, and does not negatively impact medical staffing flexibility.

The mission of Comfort is to provide afloat medical capacity for acute medical and surgical care for forward deployed operational forces. As a secondary mission, the ship provides a full-service hospital asset in support of disaster relief, humanitarian assistance and defense support to civilian authorities worldwide.

Navy Pic of the Day - USNS Comfort Anchored Off Haiti

The Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) anchored off the coast of Haiti, while helicopters bring on medical evacuated patients. Comfort is conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations as part of Operation Unified Response after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake caused severe damage in Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Troy D. Miller/Released)

USNS Comfort Supplies Vital Relief Effort in Haiti

The Military Sealift Command (MSC) hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) prepares to get underway for a short notice humanitarian deployment to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The ship, with a crew of nearly 850 personnel including 550 U.S. Navy medical service members, will assist other U.S. Armed Forces elements, non-profit humanitarian organizations and search and rescue teams from around the world in bringing relief to Haitians displaced by the Jan. 12 earthquake. Comfort's Medical Treatment Facility has the capability to provide significant medical care through an emergency operating rooms, ward beds, a casualty reception area, pharmacy and intensive care area. (U.S. Navy photo /Released)

By Ian Graham, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- As thousands of people and billions of dollars come flowing into Haiti from around the world, the U.S. Navy could be supplying one of the most vital pieces of the relief effort, the hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20)

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Mark Marino, the director of nursing aboard the Comfort, joined a DoDLive Blogger's Roundtable Jan. 19 to explain the range of patient-care capabilities the ship carries and to discuss how the Comfort carries out a relief mission like the one in Haiti.

The ship's capacity is about 1,000 beds, he said. Between 400 and 600 of those are for "low-acuity" patients that don't need much care, another 400 are for more severely injured patients who have had to undergo surgery or have special needs like a continuous IV or special dressing changes.

Normally, he said, there are 60 intensive-care beds, but he's expanded that capacity to 80 beds, anticipating more severe injuries. There's a 50-bed emergency room on board for first-aid and immediate care, as well as eight to 11 operating rooms.

"So all of the patients that come from either other ships in the area or from Haiti itself will come to our casualty receiving," Marino said. "Any emergency lifesaving measures will be addressed there, and then they'll either be taken to surgery or they'll be admitted to either a surgical ward or a medical ward or my intensive care unit."

Marino said he hopes the ship can be staffed enough to allow maximum capacity for treatment; the Comfort generally partners with nongovernment organizations, ranging from nonprofits like Operation Smile and Project Hope to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On their last mission, 10 to 15 groups contributed, either by supplying volunteers or by donating material goods.

"There is an Operation Smile representative on board," he said. "Their mission has been traditionally to do cleft palate care to young children, but they have offered up surgeons and other staff to help care for our patients in other areas.

"[The LDS church] were partners with us on our last mission," he continued. "They have orthopedic surgeons, emergency surgeons, general surgeons, pediatric, all the specialties in nursing, as well as ancillary services [and] respiratory technicians. And they are all willing to jump in, and they've got people standing by."

Volunteers from other organizations, he said, will begin rotating into the ship in coming weeks.

"They are assessing how they can fit into the organization, but in such short notice, we wanted to get our military folks up and running and on the ship, and get them in country as quickly as we could," Marino said. "And then we are now making arrangements to start that partnership with the various NGOs that'll be joining us."

The Comfort is scheduled to arrive in Haiti the morning of Jan. 20, when it will join the USS Bataan (LHD 5) and USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), taking on patients the other ships and the hospitals on the ground can't help.

"We already have a list [of high-priority patients] from the Vinson. I imagine the Bataan is going to do the same thing. There is, I believe, a surgical hospital -- I'm not sure if it's an Army field hospital or who's in there -- but we already have one of the DOD military hospitals in country with a backlog, and they are all ready to send us patients as well," Marino said.

The Vinson, Bataan and Comfort will have strategic pick-up points where helicopters from each ship will retrieve patients and bring them aboard to receive treatment.

"I believe right now we're embedding at least a trauma surgeon and possibly another physician to triage what patients would be suitable to come out to the Comfort," Marino said. "And hopefully that will be some of our focal point, at least initially."

The medical presence on the ground should expand in the next week or two to help treat critical patients sooner. But for now, he said, their focus is relieving the backlog of patients in country and getting them aboard the Comfort.

"Slowly we'll start to set up in country our own triage points at some of the places we've actually been in the past when we were doing our mission this past summer," he said.

Continuing Promise 2009 Making Preparations to Get Underway

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) will depart Norfolk, Va., April 1 for a four-month deployment to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of focus (AOF) in support of Continuing Promise 2009 (CP09).

Continuing Promise (CP) is an equal partnership mission designed to combine partner nation and U.S. relief capabilities to demonstrate the lasting bonds and shared interest among neighbors.

While in the AOF, Comfort will be under the operational control of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet (NAVSO/4th Fleet), which are the main planning and coordination commands for the Continuing Promise mission.

"Continuing Promise represents our commitment to partnering with a region that is of great importance," said Rear Adm. Joseph D. Kernan, NAVSO/4th Fleet commander.

"The team that has been assembled is diverse and brings together not only multiple U.S. armed forces and interagency representatives, but just as importantly, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and partner nation representatives who bring a wealth of knowledge and resources to the team."

This is the fourth humanitarian and civic assistance mission to the AOF and follows Comfort's 2007 deployment and USS Boxer (LHD 4) and USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) Continuing Promise 2008 deployment to the region. In total, more than 169,000 patients have been treated and more than 1,500 surgeries completed during the three deployments.

Embarked aboard Comfort as part of the CP09 team will be partner nation military medical personnel and representatives from various NGOs, the U.S. Armed Forces, U.S interagency organizations, and the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command

CP09 has been coordinated with partner nations in the region and planned hand-in-hand with a variety of other governmental and NGOs. Specific locations for the ship's relief operations include Antigua, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Panama.

As the Navy component command of USSOUTHCOM, NAVSO's mission is to direct U.S. naval forces operating in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions and interact with partner nation navies within the maritime environment. Fourth Fleet is the numbered fleet assigned to NAVSO, exercising operational control of assigned forces.

Comfort returns the NORVA

Sailors man the rails as Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) pulls pierside into Norfolk Naval Station. Comfort is wrapping up a four-month humanitarian deployment to Latin America and the Caribbean providing medical treatment in 12 countries. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Lolita M. Lewis)