RE: Why is there no Puerto Rico thread
October 1, 2017 at 12:02 pm
(This post was last modified: October 1, 2017 at 12:05 pm by Gawdzilla Sama.)
(October 1, 2017 at 11:54 am)Minimalist Wrote: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usns-comfor...erto-rico/
Quote:The USNS Comfort set off from Norfolk, Virginia, to Puerto Rico Friday afternoon as the situation on the island remains dire in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
It sailed Friday from Norfolk..... where it had been all along.
They moved fast than expected, my last info was they were 96 hours out, this on the 26th.
Quote:Deploying COMFORT has nothing to do with the Jones Act which covers the use of foreign ships in the intra-US port trade. She is in 5 day layup (IIRC) at Norfolk. Once a decision is made to deploy her which comes from the Joint Staff (someone asks the JS for her), it takes approximately 5 days to activate her, find all the medical personnel to crew the ship, and move them to Norfolk. This means that the Naval Hospital ashore establishment will be stripped (primarily from Bethesda, Portsmouth and Jacksonville Naval Hospitals) and lots of reservists will be called up. Then you have to get the people to the ship either in Norfolk or via air once she is underway. Deploying her or MERCY (West Coast hospital ship) is not a simple thing, and does not happen overnight even if you wanted to deploy her early in a crisis. The people costs are tremendous. Yes, the ships are old and need to be recapitalized. Replacement has been under study at Military Sealift Command (who owns the ships) for years.
