USA hospital ships

[Smurf]

I'm not sure if many are interested in this but after bringing them up in another thread I thought I'd post some info. I have seen these two ships in the port of San Diego. They are amazing.

http://gizmodo.com/5948246/how-the-us-n ... p-everyone

This is the USNS Comfort next to a Nimitz-class supercarrier, the biggest war ship in the world. Together with its twin, the USNS Mercy, they are the largest hospital ships on the oceans, the second largest hospital in the US and the fifth largest on the planet.

Seeing them sitting there just boggles the mind.

Their labor is admirable, helping tens of thousands all over the world every year.

Both ships are huge, 894-feet (272-meter) leviathans with a flight deck displacing 69,360 tons. They have a combined 2,000 beds, 24 fully equipped operating rooms, radiological services, medical labs, intensive care units, dental services, physical therapy and burn care, pharmacies, optometry labs, CAT scan and four oxygen factories. The Mercy also has a powerful Lumenis laser to treat patients.

The US may seem to cause a lot of problems in the world, but they also do an amazing amount of good. This is all on the backs of the US taxpayers. I doubt anyone else in the world does as much.

[averagejoe]

Maybe they brought in the hospital ships to San Diego to help with the flow of border children being flown to San Diego from Texas? I'm sure if the Border Guards are being overwhelmed, so would the medical staffs?

[Smurf]

No it was a couple of years ago I saw it. San Diego is one of many large naval ports. If you get a chance it is worth taking a harbor tour to see the number of enormous Naval ships that are constantly docked there. It is just amazing when you realize these are only a few of what they actually have.

When you get beside those hospital ships your tour boat feels like a small canoe.

[averagejoe]

No it was a couple of years ago I saw it. San Diego is one of many large naval ports. If you get a chance it is worth taking a harbor tour to see the number of enormous Naval ships that are constantly docked there. It is just amazing when you realize these are only a few of what they actually have.

When you get beside those hospital ships your tour boat feels like a small canoe.

San Diego is the home port for the U.S. Navies 3rd Fleet. I was in Sea Cadets in the 60's and 70's in Vancouver's HMCS Discovery. Made friends with many U.S. sailors who were based in San Diego or Treasure Island in San Francisco. The Vietnam war was on at that time and many U.S. Warships visited Vancouver.

[Smurf]

Yes, there's still a few around. We've seen them when we visit our son and he often sends us pictures. He's involved in the designing of some of the new ones and he says they are amazing, but he actually can't say much about them. Rightly so.