Navy Surgeon General, Congress Visit Hospital Ship

Navy NewsStand ^ | 3/5/2004 | Journalist 1st Class (SW/AW) AnTuan Guerry, National Naval Medical Center Public Affairs

[BykrBayb]

Story Number: NNS040305-05 Release Date: 3/5/2004 12:26:00 PM

By Journalist 1st Class (SW/AW) AnTuan Guerry, National Naval Medical Center Public Affairs

BALTIMORE (NNS) -- Surgeon General of the Navy Vice Adm. Michael Cowan and more than 40 staff members from various congressional offices visited hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) March 1.

Congressman Benjamin Cardin of Maryland’s Third Congressional District also paid a surprise visit to the ship and its crew.

Comfort’s primary mission is to provide an afloat, mobile, acute-surgical medical facility for the U.S. military to support expeditionary warfare. The visit allowed the staffers to view firsthand the duties, responsibilities and capabilities of the 1,000-bed hospital ship.

“This visit is important because it lets lawmakers and staff see what [Comfort] can do and what [Comfort] has done during this global war on terrorism,” said Comfort Executive Officer Cmdr. Jim Pellack. “There’s no better way for them to understand than to let them see it for themselves.”

The visit started with lunch in the wardroom and included stops on the bridge, flight deck, blood bank and one of the ship’s 11 operating rooms. The Medical Treatment Facility aboard Comfort is one of the largest trauma units in the United States, and offers a full spectrum of surgical and medical services.

The staffers continued their tour with a visit to Comfort’s radiology department, headed by Capt. Jeffrey Georgia. According to Georgia, the ship showed its full potential during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), as radiology scanned more than 13,000 X-rays of patient enemy prisoners of war.

Allison Percy, principal analyst, National Security Division of the Congressional Budget Office, said she was truly enlightened during her tour of the 894-foot floating hospital.

“I learned quite a bit about the operations of Comfort, especially during OIF. Health-wise, it gave me a greater understanding of what the ship does during wartime and for the military in general,” Percy stated. “The hands-on knowledge was better than just reading about it.”

More than anything, hospital ships are about people taking care of people, a fact the Surgeon General backs up.

“Aircraft carriers and other types of ships can make a political statement all on their own,” Cowan explained. “But when we send out a hospital ship, we are delivering an entirely different message...we are sending out a message of humanity and care.”

For more information on Comfort, visit their Web site at www.comfort.navy.mil.

For related news, visit the National Naval Medical Center Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/nnmc.

030612-N-4820R-001 Baltimore, Md. (Jun. 12, 2003) -- Friends and family members of Sailors aboard the hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) greet the ship in Baltimore as she returns from a 5½-month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The ship departed on Jan. 6. Comfort is longer than three football fields, has 1,000 beds (more than most city hospitals), and has a 50-bed emergency room (larger than any hospital in U.S.) U.S. Navy photo by Aviation Maintenance Administrationman 1st Class John E. Reynolds. (RELEASED)