VCOM View Magazine Vol. 12 | No. 1

BringinG

By Amy Ostroth and Hope Comfort

You might be able to imagine how it feels to see the USNS Comfort anchored in a harbor, especially if you live in a part of the world that requires the services it provides.

W ith a length of 894 feet, the ship is only a few feet shorter than the R.M.S. Queen Elizabeth 2. Stood on its end, the ship would tower over the Golden Gate Bridge and the Space Needle. In short: It’s big. Painted white, with large red crosses, it certainly makes an impression. The 1,000-bed hospital ship has 15 wards and 12 operating rooms and provides medical services that support U.S. disaster relief and humanitarian efforts across the globe. This fall, it traveled to Guatemala, Honduras, Columbia,

Dominican Republic and Haiti as part of its Continuing Promise 2022 mission and 12 VCOM students were able to spend time on the ship—nine went to the Dominican Republic and three to Honduras. We often think of VCOM’s mission as providing medical care to underserved communities in the Delta and Appalachian areas of the United States. But international outreach has long been part of the College’s work. A new memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Southern Command—SOUTHCOM, for short—has added further opportunities for VCOM and its students.

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