[NYTr] US Ship "Comfort" Ends Humanitarian Mission after 4 Whole Months!

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via The Washington Post - October 7, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/07/AR2007100700324.html


Navy Ship Ends Humanitarian Mission

By Lolita C. Baldor
The Associated Press

ABOARD THE USNS COMFORT -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates paid tribute
Saturday to the doctors, nurses and crew of the USNS Comfort on the
final day of a four-month humanitarian mission that provided medical
help to nearly 380,000 people in Central and South America.

Several patients still on the Comfort watched from their hospital beds
as Gates and Suriname Defense Minister Ivan Fernald toured the ship's
facilities, 15 miles off the coast. "The Suriname people are very
grateful," Fernald said.

He and Gates toured the nearly 900-foot-long ship, with its surgery and
examination equipment, 20-bed intensive care unit, four operating rooms
and 50-bed receiving area, on the eve of its return voyage to Baltimore
starting Sunday.

"You've made a huge impact every place you've gone," Gates said. He
told the crew they have "helped an awful lot of people in a lot of
different ways, and created a lot of goodwill for our country."

The visit underscored a theme of increased cooperation between the U.S.
and its southern neighbors that Gates carried through his five-day
visit to the region.

"One of the significant problems I've been talking about on my trip is
the challenge of transnational threats to all of our countries, whether
it is narcotics trafficking, other criminal behavior or terrorists," he
said.

But he said he went beyond that to discuss opportunities for
humanitarian cooperation in his meetings with national and defense
leaders from El Salvador, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Suriname.

He did not mention the possibility that the range of U.S. aid,
including helicopters, weapons, inoculations and dental surgery, can
also bolster ties with nations that are being wooed by U.S. antagonists
such as Venezuela and Cuba.

Asked whether the Comfort's tour was part of an effort to counter that
influence -- including that of Venezuela's leftist leader Hugo Chavez
-- Gates said no.

"The mission of the Comfort was not against anyone, it was directed for
and toward the people of South and Central America," he said.

One of the most controversial regional issues, the effort to find an
alternative air base for U.S. drug surveillance missions, did not come
up during the meetings, the Pentagon chief said.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said in August his country won't
extend the agreement that lets the U.S. military use the Manta air base
for surveillance flights. A senior defense official said earlier this
week that Colombia and Peru have agreed to discuss options for moving
the flights to their countries. The official spoke on condition of
anonymity because the discussions are preliminary and no negotiations
are taking place.

However, Suriname's president, Ronald Venetiaan, said Saturday that
Gates proposed building a facility in Suriname to test the performance
of U.S. military vehicles in dense jungle. "We have those conditions
here and we can accommodate them," Venetiaan said.

Gates said his Latin America tour focused on building partnerships and
listening to a wide variety of requests for equipment, aid and training
opportunities from each of the nations. Emphasis was placed on
counter-narcotics assistance, as countries such as Peru sought
helicopters, boats and weapons to help battle heavy coca production and
drug-trafficking

During the Comfort's mission, doctors, dentists, surgeons and nurses
performed more than 1,100 surgeries in the course of providing
treatments or services to almost 380,000 people. In Suriname alone, the
staff saw almost 2,500 patients.

Capt. Bob Kapcio said staff on his ship performed the most medical
treatments in Ecuador -- 51,000. There, the ship was able to dock
rather than ferry patients from shore by helicopter or boat. In
countries such as Suriname, patients had to be transported because
coral reefs prevented the ship from docking.