Comfort crosses the isthmus

摘要

The American hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), operated by the US Military Sealift Command (MSC), squeezed through the Panama Canal recently to participate in Continuing Promise 2009, a four-month humanitarian and civic assistance mission that is providing medical and otherrnservices to seven countries in Latin America. The 69,360-ton displacement vessel was built in 1975 as the American oil tanker Rose City, but was converted for her current role in the mid-1980s. Along with her sister, the largest hospital ship in the world, USNS Comfort can accommodate 63 civilian, 956 naval hospital staff and 258 naval support staff.