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If there ever was a need for a poster child for the neglect and indifference that characterizes the Biden-HARRIS administration's attitude towards governance, someone now could easily slap up a picture of the USNS Big Horn. The ship's sad story has all the elements that are now bedeviling the Americans it serves thanks to the malevolent, arrogant, indifferent clowns who currently rule over us. Almost a year ago, I wrote something I headlined, "US Maritime Woes: God Forbid We Go to War." I was trying to shine a light on the utterly shameful, almost downright criminal neglect with which the...

gCaptain has received multiple reports that the US Navy oiler USNS Big Horn ran aground yesterday and partially flooded off the coast of Oman, leaving the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group without its primary fuel source. First reported on the gCaptain forum and by maritime historian Sal Mercogliano, a leaked video and photos show damage to the ship’s rudder post and water flooding into a mechanical space. US Navy vessels don’t typically transmit AIS signals, so we don’t know the exact location of the ship but a Navy source confirms she is anchored near Oman awaiting a full damage assessment....

Norfolk-based USNS Comfort was deployed to help treat patients in the early days of the pandemic. Mississippi health officials hope it can be deployed again. NORFOLK, Va. — Hampton Roads could send help to one of the COVID-19 pandemic's hardest-hit states. Mississippi has requested the federal government send a military hospital ship such as the Norfolk-based USNS Comfort to help its overloaded hospitals with COVID-19 patients, state health official Jim Craig said Wednesday.... The University of Mississippi Medical Center has 127 COVID-19 patients, including 26 children, Dean LouAnn Woodward said Wednesday. About 90% of them are unvaccinated, she said. The...

The Pentagon is pushing its naval fleet to the brink and this is manifesting itself in its vessels appearing run-down after sustained operations. The Lewis and Clarke class dry cargo ship USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE-11) pulled into San Diego Bay on Friday, December 4th, 2020

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, July 15, 2009 – I left the USNS Comfort July 13 after a little more than three days aboard the hospital ship. It was not long enough. I underestimated the time I would need to gather the stories I wanted to tell. It is truly an amazing ship, with a crew of physicians, dentists, optometrists, nurses and a host of other staff who perform incredible work in difficult conditions. Hundreds of health care professionals from around the world, many of them volunteers, gathered to deliver basic care that most of us in the United States take for granted....

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Monday that Chinese ships shadowed and maneuvered dangerously close to a U.S. Navy vessel in what appeared to be an effort to harass the American crew. The Obama administration is protesting to the Chinese government. The protest will be delivered to Beijing's military attache on Monday.

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2007 – The hospital ship USNS Comfort will provide health care to disadvantaged citizens at several Latin American and Caribbean ports of call this summer, President Bush announced here yesterday. President Bush is dispatching the hospital ship USNS Comfort on a mission of goodwill to Caribbean and Latin American countries. In this file photo, the Comfort pulls into Naval Station Mayport, Fla., on Sept. 5, 2005, to take on supplies in support of Hurricane Katrina relief operations. U.S. Navy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The United States military is a symbol of strength for...

Descendants of Sacagawea will be on hand Saturday as a Navy resupply ship bearing the Indian guide's name will be christened and launched into a bay. "This is a very humbling experience, not just for our family but for the whole tribe," said Rod Ariwite Sr. of Pocatello, Idaho, a descendant of Sacagawea and member of the Shoshone people. "This ship will be out there carrying Sacagawea's name long after I am gone." The Sacagawea will carry a crew of 172 and has the largest flight deck in the Military Sealift Command's Naval Fleet Auxiliary. The 41,000-ton vessel also is...

5/30/2006 - YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan (AFPN) -- Three Airmen from the 374th Medical Group here are deployed to the U.S. Navy hospital ship, USNS Mercy, as it travels through Southeast Asia on a humanitarian mission. The mission is an opportunity for a U.S. team consisting of medical professionals from the Air Force, Army and Navy to work with members of the U.S. Public Health Service and nongovernmental organizations. The Airmen joined the Mercy crew in the Philippines and will get the opportunity for hands-on training in the field, including diagnosing and surveying diseases in the area; analyzing industrial hygiene;...

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- U.S Naval hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) arrived here May 2, making its first stop during a humanitarian assistance mission to the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. This deployment to the region exemplifies the U.S. commitment to South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific island nations while building upon relationships established during Operation Unified Assistance in 2005. Meeting the arriving ship at the pier, Adm. Gary Roughead, commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, told members of the media and Mercy crew members that accomplishing the mission will be all about teamwork. “This is about a partnership,”...

BETHESDA, Md. (NNS) -- National Naval Medical Center staff and the crew of USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) will team up with the Canadian navy in April for a medical training mission along the East Coast. British and Canadian military medical personnel will accompany crew members on the transit from Baltimore to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. "The exercise with the Canadians is an international training opportunity where we will work on our interoperability with foreign nations’ organic medical operations," said Chief Hospital Corpsman (AW) Richard Gotautas, Bethesda Contingency Department’s leading chief petty officer. Comfort’s reduced operating crew, along with Military Sealift...

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- The U.S. Naval hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) is scheduled to depart its San Diego homeport April 24, in support of a five-month humanitarian assistance mission to the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. Following logistics stops along the way, Mercy should arrive in the Philippines in mid- to late May. The ship’s mission is being coordinated with host nations in the region and is being carried out in conjunction with non-governmental relief organizations to provide medical, dental and other humanitarian assistance programs ashore and afloat. “The deployment of USNS Mercy to Southeast Asia and...

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) departed New Orleans Oct. 8 to return to her homport in Baltimore after providing several weeks of disaster relief to the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Comfort has been acting as an emergency trauma center for the city since Sept. 28. During the ship's 10 days in New Orleans, Comfort's medical staff has worked alongside local civilian physicians to treat trauma patients aboard ship in a partnership between the Navy and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Comfort...

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (NNS) -- The hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) departed Pascagoula, Miss., Sept. 20 after spending ten days providing medical and dental care, and disaster relief assistance to the citizens of Pascagoula and surrounding areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. As Hurricane Rita approaches the Gulf of Mexico region, many Navy assets in the Gulf region are preparing to get underway to ride out the storm. “Our ship must leave to be in a position to be out of the storm’s path in time,” said Ship's Master Capt. Tom Finger. Despite the early exit from Pascagoula, Comfort leadership is...

NAPLES, Italy (NNS) -- Military Sealift Command (MSC) ship USNS Red Cloud (T-AKR 313) is carrying generators and a crane to the U.S. Gulf Coast region to support Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. Donated by the Department of Defense, the $1.9 million worth of equipment was loaded aboard the ship at Naval Station Rota, Spain, Sept. 9-10. The equipment will be offloaded in southern Texas, where it will be transported by ground to hard-hit areas of Louisiana and Alabama. Two large diesel generators will be used to power hospitals in Louisiana, while two others will power hospitals in Alabama. Five other...

ABOARD THE USNS COMFORT (AP) -- Navy nurse Kimberlee Flannery came to the Persian Gulf expecting to help wounded Americans. Instead, she has been caring mostly for injured enemy soldiers. Flannery admits she was "very apprehensive" when her first Iraqi soldier came aboard this U.S. Navy hospital ship. But any misgivings she might have had quickly melted away. "Then you see the pain and the agony of the people, and that whole mindset is erased," said the 23-year-old from Chillicote, Ohio. So far, the patient roster aboard the USNS Comfort off the coast of Bahrain, has been the product of...