US Navy to deploy hospital ship Comfort to hurricane-battered Puerto Rico
2017-09-28 09:59:49 source：The Straits Times
September 28, 2017
The US Navy hospital ship Comfort is due to leave its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday (Sept 29) for deployment to the hurricane-battered island of Puerto Rico, its first civilian disaster mission in seven years, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
The USNS Comfort, equipped to carry as many as 1,000 hospital beds, 12 operating rooms and one of the largest trauma units in the United States, is expected to arrive in Puerto Rico by the middle of next week, according to Defence Department officials. It takes up to four days to load and prepare the vessel.
The vessel's departure date was set a week after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico and three days after former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton urged Republican US President Donald Trump in a Twitter message to deploy the ship.
Read more: