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Comfort Team 1: June 13—July 16, 2007. A team of Commissioned Corps officers is serving on the USNS Comfort, a U.S. Navy hospital ship that departed Norfolk, VA, on June 15, to begin a medical, public health, and oral health mission in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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A team of 17 U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers is serving on the USNS Comfort, a U.S. Navy hospital ship that departed Norfolk, VA, on June 15, to begin a medical, public health, and oral health mission in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The 4-month mission of the USNS Comfort is to provide oral and primary care health services in communities near where the ship docks. The Commissioned Corps officers are working with the U.S. Navy, Army, and Coast Guard, as well as with nonprofit organizations Project Hope and Operation Smile.
Commissioned Corps team officers deployed to the USNS Comfort are dentists, dental hygienists, physicians, nurses, environmental health officers, environmental engineers, veterinarians, a physician assistant, a pharmacist, and a surgeon. The team is led by the Commissioned Corps officer in charge, Captain Craig Shepherd, who is the chief environmental health officer of the U.S. Public Health Service.
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CDR Steve Johnson, a dentist in the Health Resources and Services Administration, is serving on the USNS Comfort in Belize.
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"We have taken helicopter trips to incredibly remote sites to treat patients, many of whom have never had access to dental care before. In every case, the patients are friendly and grateful. This mission is very fulfilling, exciting, and interesting," says Commander Steve Johnson, a Corps dentist.
Each team of Corps officers is aboard for one leg of the mission, about a month, except for the officers in charge, who are on board for the entire mission. Commissioned Corps officers aboard the USNS Comfort gain valuable experience treating indigenous patients in environments with few resources?skills that will be useful as officers provide care to vulnerable populations back in the United States.
The USNS Comfort is delivering care in Belize City, Belize; Puerto Barrios, Guatemala; Colon, Panama; Corinto, Nicaragua; Acajutla, El Salvador; Salaverry, Peru; Manta, Ecuador; Bahia Malaga, Colombia; Port-Au-Prince, Haiti; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; Georgetown, Guyana; and Paramaribo, Suriname, before arriving back in Norfolk, VA, on October 15.
To see a video about the Commissioned Corps? contribution to the USNS Comfort mission, click here.
For more information about the USNS Comfort, click here.
Commissioned Corps officers are also serving on the USS Peleliu?for more information about that mission, click here.
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Comfort Team 1 after their promotion ceremony.
A team of Commissioned Corps officers is serving on the USNS Comfort, a U.S. Navy hospital ship that departed Norfolk, VA, on June 15, to begin a medical, public health, and oral health mission in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Left to right, back row: CDR Steve Johnson, LCDR Catherine Rockwell, CAPT Arturo Bravo, Commodore Robert Kapcio (U.S. Navy), CAPT Craig Shepherd, CAPT Bruce Boynton (Comfort Commanding Officer, U.S. Navy), LCDR Jennifer Tredway, LCDR Lori Goodman, LT Joseph Shurina, CDR Ulana Bodnar, LCDR Karen Lee, LT William Williamson.
Left to right, front row: CDR Sheryl O?Shea, CDR Daniel Singer, LCDR Harry Ko, LT Amy Dayhoff, LCDR Eduardo Azziz-Baumgartner, CDR Diane Kelsch, CAPT Chris Brady, LTJG Lisa Begay.
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Comfort Team 2: July 13—August 14, 2007. Left to right, front row and one knee down: CAPT James Sutherland, LT Misty Rohrer, LCDR Angela Girgenti, CDR Monica Rueben, CAPT Cynthia Kunkel, CDR Jeffrey Lowell, CAPT Sarath Seneviratne, CAPT Arthur French.
Left to right, standing: CAPT Craig Shepherd (officer-in-charge), CDR Jose Serrano, CDR Kevin Prohaska, LT Charles Brucklier, CDR Kimberly Walker, CDR Carlos Rivera, CAPT Ana Maria Osorio, LCDR Gregory Langham, LTJG James Lyons, CDR Abraham Miranda, CDR Bob Smith.
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