USNS Comfort
As we rode between our hotel and our cruise ship, our bus driver pointed out a few sights along the way, including the USNS Comfort, one of the U.S. Navy’s hospital ships which is currently undergoing a $17 million-plus overhaul and drydock in Boston. Find it in the center of this foggy photo.
The ten-story ship is as large as three football fields. When activated for a mission, it can accommodate a crew of 1,200 Navy physicians, nurses, and support staff. After its launch in 1987, the Comfort’s first mission was to serve coalition troops off the coast of Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm, but the medical staff of the Comfort does not only serve members of the Armed Forces.
In 2001, the Comfort sailed to Manhattan where its staff provided medical and mental health services in the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11.
The ship soon sailed back to the Middle East to serve combat troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In 2005 the Comfort staff served American citizens following Hurricane Katrina.
In 2010 the ship and its crew responded with disaster relief in Haiti following the massive earthquake there.
However, the regular work of the Comfort is to go on humanitarian missions, serving nations in the Caribbean and in Central and South America.
Comfort is one of the sweetest words in the English language. And comforting is one of the sweetest — and often the most challenging — jobs a mama is privileged to perform. Praise God that He comforts us so that we can comfort our children.
Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort . . .
2 Corinthians 1:3