U.S.N.S. Comfort

As part of the federal relief effort, the hospital ship Comfort is being dispatched to New Orleans. LMC remembers when the ship was pulled out of drydock in preparation for Gulf War I.

The ship is fitted as an 1000-bed hospital capable of providing Level I trauma care along with anything a physician could possibly want. At the time she was put into military service, I remember reading that if she was a land-based hospital, it would be the 10th largest in America. (I knew in the summer of 1990 that H.W. was serious about getting Saddam out of Kuwait when Comfort put to sea because it showed the President was ready to launch something that could result in mass casualties.) Comfort will give the taxpayers their money's worth when she arrives on station.

Here is the Comfort's website.

Type of Vessel: San Clemente-Class Super Tanker
Operating Rooms: 12
Intensive Care Wards: 80 Beds
Recovery Beds: 20 Beds
Intermediate Care Beds: 400 Beds
Minimal Care Beds: 500 Beds
Casualty Receiving Stations: 50 Beds
Total Patient Capacity: 1000 Beds
Length Overall: 894 Feet
Beam: 105.9 Feet
Draft Design: 32.9 Feet
Speed: more than 17.5 knots
Total Crew Accommodations: 1,215
Reduced Operating Status Personnel: 58 Navy Medical Personnel and 18 civilian Mariner
Tons of structural steel: 69,360

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