Posted on 09/10/2005 6:44:00 AM PDT by wjersey
ABOARD THE USNS COMFORT - Most of this hospital ship's crew bunked down Thursday night thinking they were headed for New Orleans.
They didn't know that Trent Lott had other thoughts.
As the ship approached the mouth of the Mississippi River, it was turned around. Yesterday afternoon, the crew docked at Pascagoula, in the Republican senator's home state of Mississippi, waiting to receive victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The former Senate majority leader had pressed leaders of the relief effort late Thursday night to have the ship go to his state, saying three naval vessels were already in New Orleans and able to meet its medical needs now that so many people had been evacuated.
Susan Irby, Lott's communications director, defended the move. "All of our hospitals have been destroyed or damaged," she said. "Our folks in Mississippi are coming back in" to their homes.
Capt. Thomas A. Allingham, commander of the ship's medical units, said as the ship docked that he did not know when the first patients would arrive.
Four hours later, he said he had "sent messages up and down the line trying to get clarity on our mission here." His second-in-command was meeting with local leaders last night, and he plans to attend more such meetings early today, to get a clear view of the needs in Southern Mississippi.
The ship's dermatologist, Lt. Cmdr. Robert Guardiano, of Annapolis, Md., expects to be one of the busiest on board. Even minor scratches and sunburns, he said, can become infected in the conditions that exist in the hurricane-affected area.
The staff also expects large numbers of cases of dehydration and complications from going without medications for extended periods. There will also be injuries and instances of heat exhaustion among those working to clean up the area.
The Comfort is one of two fully equipped acute-care hospital ships in the fleet of the Navy's Military Sealift Command. It has 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms and is currently staffed by virtually all medical specialties, assembled from nine Navy medical centers and the volunteer relief organization Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere). When on full operational status, as it is now, the daily cost exceeds $700,000 a day, according to the Navy.
The ship sailed from its base in Baltimore shortly before midnight Sept. 2. Since Monday, when the ship picked up supplies and additional crew in Naval Station Mayport, near Jacksonville, Fla., the crew has been participating in drills - such as walking blindfolded, practicing how to abandon ship in total darkness.
The early part of the day yesterday was tinged with mystery. Those who rose early expecting to see New Orleans saw only open water, and the sun was rising from the direction the ship was steaming - east - instead of off the starboard side as it would be approaching New Orleans.
Lt. j.g. Bashon Mann, public-affairs officer for the medical units aboard ship, said about 6:30 a.m. Central time (7:30 a.m. in Philadelphia) that the ship was standing by at sea, with no specific destination, because commanders of the relief effort on land had said there was no immediate need in New Orleans. It would remain at sea, Mann said, where it could keep drinking-water tanks full with purification equipment that cannot be used when the ship is in polluted harbors.
An hour later, according to a reporter's handheld global-positioning-satellite receiver, the ship changed course and was pointed at Pascagoula.
Trent should be retired.
If forced "evacuation" is going on in New Orleans why would they need a hospital ship. Send it to a place where people are going to need it. Maybe they don't need it anywhere now.
The people of Mississippi were hardest hit and the most needing of aid.
The title says it all- the MSM are going to treat it as if a Republican Senator 'diverted' a ship from the needy to his home state.
Almost like there was no needy in Miss.
Oh- and I watched Good Morning America (ABC) this morning and what a mistake that was~! The moron talking head asked the FORMER (under clintoon) head of FEMA if it is standard operations to hire former campaign staffers with no emergency control experience to head FEMA. (what an unbiased question~!) THEN he went on to ask "is on-the-job training" appropriate?
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....What a way to ruin your morning before you are even out of bed..
Good for Trent. NO is getting all the news, all the aid. Other states were hit -- even some white people. The whining is just not quite as loud. Might it not be racist to only aid black people??? I say good for Trent.
Personally I don't think we need most of the foreign help we're getting. After all the tens of thousand killed are starting to look like little more than media hype.
Why? There are people here who need medical attention also,after all, the MS Coast took a direct hit,and New Orleans does already have three hospital ships.
Why?
Wow and to think Congress is who designed the Homeland Security Agency, placed FEMA within it and set up the rules and regulations, the spending and the staff of FEMA, have power to commandeer a navy ship.
Wonder what other powers these that never accept responsibility for any of their laws and spending can accomplish?
The situation does not need a micromanager. Trent needs to but out. If the ship is in the area, helicopters can move the needy. Also the Navy works better as a unit with multiple ships not as a separate operation.
I say, "Good Going, Trent!!". So much of the focus seems to be on NO. I'm glad he stepped in to get help for his state.
And you are not thinking. See my last post. Ships supply each other. It is better to have them together.
We over in MS have pretty much decided that God helps those who help themselves,and if NO thinks it needs help more than us,we'll live,we weren't so dependent in the first place on handouts as they are used to,LOL. We just hope that as long as we're not cursing the President or acting like fools on TV,maybe the media will go away and forget us and let us get on with it. They'll walk by a thousand people here who have no recriminations to find the one bitter sour person who will give them a good whiny soundbite anyway,so maybe they'll just leave and go to NO,and we'll continue getting on with the cleanup.People are already buying lumber for repairs,and this Saturday morning instead of lawn mowers I'm hearing chainsaws everywhere.
A. Trent is right: Everything was going to NO.
B. He is representing his state--what is he suopposed to do? Join the " Pity Party" in NO?
Sorry, I can not fault him.
Once they are in the area, they are easy to move. Let the military handle things. Not a stupid Senator or and emotional Freeper.
I say, "Good Going, Trent!!". So much of the focus seems to be on N O. I'm glad he stepped in to get help for his state I THINK WE MIGHT GET A MAJORITY VOTE!
Sounds allright to me. Everything has been NO
Let the military handle it. Butt out.
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