USNS Comfort (AH-20)

I served on a hospital ship in Viet Nam and have a good idea of how wonderful these ships can be for those in need. The ship I served on was USS Sanctuary (AH-17). This ship is (AH-20) meaning that she is only the third hospital ship commissioned since Viet Nam. Our ship had 750 beds which is larger than Baptist (639 beds), St. Dominic(571 beds) or University Medical Center(722 beds)in Jackson. It was also larger than North Mississippi Medical Center(650 beds) in Tupelo. The Comfort has 1,000 beds. I'm confident this ship of mercy will play a vital role in providing much needed acute medical care to the casualties in Haiti.

USNS Comfort (AH-20)





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