By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brandon Shelander

USNS Comfort Public Affairs 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) departed Haiti Sept. 8,  after nearly a week of humanitarian operations in the country.

Comfort offered services in four locations in and around the city of Port-au-Prince, a small port city, and de la Croix-des-Bouquet, a town several miles inland. In all, services were offered at the Hộpital De Universit’e Etat d’ Haiti, Hôpital Universitaire de la Paix, Centre Hôpitalier Eliazar Germain in Pétion Ville, and Centre de Sante, a health training center in de la Croix-des-Bouquets. Those services included primary adult and pediatric care, dental services, optometry and veterinarian care.

The mission required the all-hands participation of Comfort’s joint-agency crew. Members of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, Military Sealift Command, Canadian Forces, and the non-governmental organization Project Hope all played a big part in this mission.

“Comfort’s humanitarian mission to this country was very important, and we hope the medical services and construction assistance we’ve provided will have a very positive effect on the Haitians we’ve been able to treat,” said Capt. Bob Kapcio, Comfort’s mission commander.  

In addition to medical services the Comfort team provided, the embarked Naval Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 202’s community projects in Haiti included repairing electrical and solar water systems, repairing cabinets, building an incinerator for medical waste and re-painting the Centre de Sante health training center.

Comfort also offered tangible gifts in the form of medical equipment and supplies, clothing and toys donated by Project Handclasp, a U.S. non-profit charitable organization. Nearly $7,000 worth of goods were donated to the people of Haiti, including 2 hospital beds, hospital furniture and children’s and infants’ clothing.

Comfort’s humanitarian mission has served more than 76,000 patients during the entire deployment and more than 11,800 in Haiti; however, this is only part of the story. Total patient encounters, which include a single patient receiving multiple treatments, students in training sessions, even veterinary care services are in excess of 295,000 of which more than 39,000 were in Haiti.

Comfort will visit Trinidad and Tobago next, continuing its four-month humanitarian deployment to Latin America and the Caribbean. The ship is providing medical treatment to patients in a dozen countries scheduled to return to the U.S. in October.