2010-01-25 Home Front: Politix
|
USNS Comfort -- Background & Current Status
|
USNS Comfort - (T-AH-20)
Keel Laid: May 1, 1975 (the oil tanker SS Rose City)
Launched: February 1, 1976 (SS Rose City)
Commissioned: December 1, 1987 (as USNS Comfort)
One of two of Military Sealift Command's Hospital Ships and part of its 41-ship Naval Auxiliary Force. (Other Hospital Ship: USNS Mercy)
Features: USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) and USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) each contain 12 fully-equipped operating rooms, a 1,000 bed hospital facility, digital radiological services, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, a CAT-scan and two oxygen producing plants. Each ship is equipped with a helicopter deck capable of landing large military helicopters. The ships also have side ports to take on patients at sea.
Background: Both hospital ships are converted San Clemente-class super tankers. Mercy was delivered in 1986 and Comfort in 1987. Normally, the ships are kept in a reduced operating status in San Diego, Calif and Baltimore, Md., respectively.
USNS Comfort Status as of January 1, 2010:
Reduced Operating Status (5)
Reduced Operating Status Crew: 18 civil service mariners and 58 Naval medical personnel
Definition of 'Reduced Operating Status (5):
ROS-(5) requires a small crew onboard to assure the readiness of propulsion and other primary systems if the need arises to activate the ship. (5) indicates it will take five days to make the ship ready to sail, fully crewed and operational.
ROS 4 & 5 are defined as 'Priority Readiness'.
From Global Security:
Those ships requiring the fastest activation (4 and 5 days) are maintained in Reduced Operational Status (ROS, i.e., ROS-4 and ROS-5). ROS vessels are required to be fully mission capable within either four or five calendar days from notice to activate (ROS-4 & ROS-5 designations). These vessels are in a state of continuous maintenance and many of the systems are continuously or frequently operational.The vessels are crewed by maintenance crews that serve as the core of the ships' operating crew when the vessels are activated. High priority ships kept in Reduced Operating Status (ROS) 4-day and 5-day status have 9 or 10 person maintenance crews on board, are berthed at dispersed "outport" locations, and have frequent sea trials to test their operational capability. When the ships are activated, remaining crew members come from the pool of seafarers whose normal jobs are aboard U.S.-flag merchant ships which operate in the nation's domestic and international commerce.
Last activation:
January 13, 2010, to support Operation Unified Response Haiti
Sailing Date:
January 16, 2010
Arrival on station:
January 20, 2010 and immediately began receiving patients.
Comfort left Baltimore ahead of schedule in just 76.5 hours with a crew of 67 civil service mariners, 560 medical personnel and an approximately 110-person contingent of support personnel.
Comfort is one of 10 MSC ships mobilized to date in support of humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti. These ships include hospital ship USNS Comfort, fleet replenishment oiler USNS Big Horn, rescue and salvage ship USNS Grasp, dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Sacagawea and Maritime Prepositioning Ship USNS 1ST LT Jack Lummus.
In addition, four ships have been activated from the U.S. Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Force to assist with the effort. When activated, these ships come under the operational control of MSC.
Note: I was slammed the other day for my comments on a 'vague' comment from another RBer about the deployment of the USNS Comfort. I stand by my comments. Had the 'slammers' bothered to read all of my 'very clear' comments, I was specific in criticizing bureaucratic budget cutters, NOT Navy personnel. I'm not going to respond by telling patriots to do that which they wrote of me, but perhaps the original poster should be more specific in comments and the other slammer should simply re-read.
Our military response on-scene has been somewhat lacking, tempered by the excellent efforts of our military personnel. However, THEY are not responsible for the fact that they have no training for relief efforts, AND, specific to my previous comments, ROS crew are not themselves responsible for the fact that the USNS Comfort was NOT in a condition befitting 'Reduced Operating Status' at the time of her activation, due to the fact that it had NEITHER operational Comms or operational generators when it sailed. As quoted from the previous poster's article,
"Last Tuesday morning the Comfort was sitting at pier 11 in Baltimore with no power or people or supplies. A big chunk of cold steel.", plus "...shoved off the pier around 1000 Saturday with only that external power. Because of that limited power and how this old ship's wiring is configured, we didn't have any communications. None."
That is NOT meeting Reduced Operating Status requirements. In fact, should they have sailed at all? I was not a navy officer, but I believe sailing a ship of that size without working comms is a major violation of both civilian and military maritime rules. Perhaps mobile comms are permissible if they permit communications with other traffic, but that was not elaborated.
I have no knowledge of the media bad-mouthing the Navy, as the author of the original article suggested. I would question again, as I asserted to in my previous comments, 'where is the criticism of this administration', including the Hill.
(see U.S. Navy Readiness Flaws Exposed)
As I tried to suggest in my previous comments, let your congressman/senator know how you feel about military funding and, for that matter, this horrible disaster jokingly referred to as 'fiscal management'. Cuts WILL have to be made in the coming 2 years. If we can't keep RRF and ROS ships ready to sail now, it will only get worse when the Dems begin cutting. The personnel tasked with readying the Comfort and those sailing with her are to be commended. Perhaps I should have commented on that previously, but that was NOT the point I was making at the time.
I spent an hour collating this data from many sources and elaborating on my comments. If I'm still to be denigrated, it's only Ricky Boxing by closet liberals...
|
Posted by logi_cal 2010-01-25 09:22||
||
Front Page|| [7 views ]
Top
|
Posted by Steve White 2010-01-25 13:00||
2010-01-25 13:00||
Front Page
Top
|
Posted by Alaska Paul 2010-01-25 13:29||
2010-01-25 13:29||
Front Page
Top
|
Posted by logi_cal 2010-01-25 15:30||
2010-01-25 15:30||
Front Page
Top
|
Posted by Pappy 2010-01-25 21:43||
2010-01-25 21:43||
Front Page
Top
|
|
09:32 Super Hose
09:31 Skidmark
09:30 Rex Mundi
09:24 Raj
09:23 MikeKozlowski
09:14 trailing wife
09:04 M. Murcek
08:45 Procopius2k
08:42 Skidmark
08:41 Galactic+Coordinator+and+Company6935
08:38 Skidmark
08:31 Skidmark
08:25 Skidmark
08:16 Xyz
08:12 Skidmark
08:10 Besoeker
08:07 trailing wife
08:06 Besoeker
08:03 Skidmark
08:03 Besoeker
07:59 Cesare
07:59 Skidmark
07:56 trailing wife
07:56 Besoeker
|