For the sixth time in its history, U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) recently left its homeport of Norfolk, Va., en route for South America and Central America to conduct an 11-week medical assistance mission. At its first stop, in Ecuador, the ship's embarked medical personnel treated more than 4,000 patients over the course of five days, both onboard and at two medical treatment locations set up nearby. Continuing its mission, the ship and its crew will work closely with host-nation health and government partners in Peru, Colombia, and Honduras, reflecting the United States' enduring promise of friendship, partnership, and solidarity with the Americas.
USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) has a long and impressive history in service to the Navy, but it's actually the third ship in Naval History to be named for the general word classification associated with hospital ships.
Comfort I (AH-3) was commissioned March 18, 1918, and worked mainly in the Atlantic helping return wounded men home from Europe during
World War I.
The second
Comfort (AH-6) was commissioned on May 5, 1944, and operated throughout
World War II with a Navy crew and Army medical personnel. USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) was placed in service with the Military Sealift Command on Dec. 1, 1987. Getting its first service during a time of war in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the ship's medical teams saw more than 8,000 outpatients, admitted 700 inpatients, and performed 337 complex surgical procedures that often proved impossible to perform in the limited combat hospitals ashore. From the early 1990s in the Arabian Gulf through the
September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York; from Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in 2005 through the earthquake relief efforts in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 2010 the ship and its crew have continued to provide afloat medical facilities when called upon by the U.S. military, and hospital services to support U.S. disaster relief and humanitarian operations worldwide. Take a look below to see USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) through the years!
Sailors assemble on the dock to watch the christening of the hospital ship USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20) at the National Steel and Shipbuilding C
A starboard bow view of the hospital ship USNS COMFORT (T-AH-20) passing through the Gaillard Cut of the Panama Canal while en route to its home port of Baltimore. The COMFORT, along with the hospital ship USNS MERCY (T-AH-19), is operated for the Navy by the Military Sealift Command
Relatives and friends of crew members aboard the hospital ship USNS COMFORT (T-AH-20) watch from the pier as the vessel departs for the Persian Gulf in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait
US Navy Ship (USNS) Comfort (T-HA 20), a Mercy Class hospital ship, enters the Souda Bay harbor during her transit of the eastern Mediterranean. The US is repositioning some of its military forces to support the President's Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), and prepare for future contingencies as may be directed.