USNS Comfort

As the USNS Comfort sails to Haiti, I thought it would be interesting to find out more about this floating Naval Hospital.

Builder: National Steel and Shipbuilding
Laid down: May 1, 1975 (As Rose City MA-301)
Launched: February 1, 1976
Commissioned: December 1, 1987 (to US Navy)
Status: in active service, as of 2010

General characteristics
Displacement: 69,360 tons (70,470 t)
Length: 894 ft (272 m)
Beam: 105 ft 7 in (32.18 m)
Propulsion: two boilers, two GE turbines, one shaft, 24,500 hp (18.3 MW)
Speed: 17.5 knots (32 km/h)
Complement: 63 civilian, 956 naval hospital staff, 258 naval support staff, up to 1000 bed patients
Time to activate: 5 days
Patient Capacity:
o Intensive care wards: 80 beds
o Recovery wards: 20 beds
o Intermediate care wards: 280 beds
o Light care wards: 120 beds
o Limited care wards: 500 beds
o Total Patient Capacity: 1000 beds
o Operating Rooms: 12
Departments and Facilities:
o Casualty reception
o Intensive care unit
o Radiological services
o Main laboratory plus satellite lab
o Central sterile receiving
o Medical supply/pharmacy
o Physical therapy and burn care
o Dental services
o Optometry/lens lab
o Morgue
o Laundry
o Oxygen producing plants (two)
o Medical Photography
o Four distilling plants to make drinking water from sea water (300,000 gallons per day)
o Flight deck can handle world's largest military helicopters (CH-53D, CH-53E, MH-53E, Mi-17)I think if I were a young person in the Navy it would be a wonderful opportunity to be deployed on the USNS Comfort. While I'm certain the work is sometimes grueling, I'm also convinced it's very rewarding too. I'm pretty sure the citizens of Haiti are looking forward to its arrival.