USNS Comfort

For other ships with the same name, see USS Comfort.

USNS Comfort (T-AH-20)
USNS Comfort in Trinidad and Tobago waters in September 2019
History
United States
Name
  • 1975–1987: Rose City
  • 1987–1994: Comfort
  • 1994–1996: Rose City
  • 1996–present: Comfort
BuilderNational Steel and Shipbuilding
Laid down1 May 1975 (as Rose City MA-301)
Launched1 February 1976
In service1 December 1987 (with the U.S. Navy)
HomeportNaval Station Norfolk
Identification
MottoCurare Aegra Permarinum (Care of the Sick on the Sea)[1]
StatusActive
Badge
General characteristics
Class and typeMercy-class hospital ship
Displacement69,360 tons (70,470 t)[2]
Length894 ft (272 m)
Beam105 ft 7 in (32.18 m)
Draft33 ft (10 m)
PropulsionTwo boilers, two GE turbines, one shaft, 24,500 hp (18.3 MW)
Speed17.5 knots (20.1 mph; 32.4 km/h)
Capacity1,000 patient beds
Complement63 civilian, 956 naval hospital staff, 258 naval support staff
Time to activate5 days
Aviation facilitiesA flight deck that can handle military helicopters (CH-53D, CH-53E, MH-53E, Mi-17, UH 60)

USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) is a Mercy-class hospital ship of the United States Navy.

Comfort's duties include providing emergency, on-site care for U.S. combatant forces deployed in war or other operations. Operated by the Military Sealift Command, Comfort provides rapid, flexible, and mobile medical and surgical services to support Marine Corps Air-Ground Task Forces and Army and Air Force units deployed ashore, and naval amphibious task forces and battle forces afloat. Secondarily, she provides mobile surgical hospital service for use by appropriate U.S. government agencies in disaster or humanitarian relief or limited humanitarian care incident to these missions or peacetime military operations. Comfort is more advanced than a field hospital but less capable than a traditional hospital on land.[3]

From 30 March to 30 April 2020, Comfort was stationed in New York City to help combat the city's coronavirus pandemic by treating non-coronavirus, and later on, coronavirus-positive patients.[4]

  1. ^ @ameeicsnavy (4 November 2010). "America's Navy — Curare Aegra Permarinum means "Care of the Sick on" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Inv was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Little, Robert (25 January 2010). "Comfort's ability to help stretched to limit". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference covidallowed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).