On Friday morning, October 12, 2007, NLUS Florida Region President Patricia Du Mont flew by helicopter, landing aboard USNS COMFORT (T-AH-20), an 894-foot-long hospital ship operated by the United States Naval Service. The COMFORT was transiting the Florida coastline to Norfolk and then on to homeport Baltimore, after a successful four-month deployment to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Gary Roughead (pictured above with Florida Region President Patricia DuMont), thanked the crew and welcomed them home from their humanitarian mission, which began in June, as a major component of the president’s “Advancing the Cause of Social Justice in the Western Hemisphere” initiative. The U.S. Southern Command-sponsored mission was the first of its kind to the region, according to Admiral James Stavridis, SouthCom Commander.

USNS COMFORT (pictured below) was manned by a joint, interagency crew totaling more than 740 personnel. Of that number, more than 500 made up the medical crew comprised of Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Army and U.S. Public Health Service health care professionals, along with representatives from non-governmental health organizations, like Project Hope and Operation Smile. COMFORT was operated and navigated by a crew of 68 civil service mariners (CIVMARS) from the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC).

Operation Smile, an international medical charity that provides free surgeries to children from developing countries with facial deformities, worked alongside COMFORT’s dental staff in Nicaragua and Peru and assisted with pre-screening efforts during the hospital ship’s visit to Colombia.

USNS COMFORT traveled more than 10,000 miles, visiting 12 nations throughout the region to bring medical care and assistance to those in need. Medical staff aboard COMFORT conducted more than 355,000 patient consultations and treated a variety of ailments. Surgical teams aboard conducted more than 1,000 procedures, and dental teams performed more than 50,000 dental procedures. The ship also carried a Navy Construction Battalion (SEABEEs) detachment, which carried out numerous construction and improvement projects during the mission, as well.

In addition to CNO Gary Roughead and NLUS Region President DuMont, other VIPs on board to welcome the crew included Randy Sherman, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Operation Smile, John P Howe III, MD, President & Chief Executive Officer of Project Hope, Rand Walton, Project Hope’s Director of Strategic Communication, Gerard Greene, Consul General of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and Ralph LaTortue, Consul General Republic of Haiti.

Article & Photos submitted by Pat DuMont