Blackadder1916 said:
For those that may be interested, the latest episode of "
Mighty Ships" on the Discovery Channel (today locally at 1900hr MT - in about an hour) will feature the USNS Comfort as it ". . . travels from Colombia and through the Panama Canal on a mission of mercy to the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica . . . "
If you missed it when it was on the TV schedule, it is now available for viewing on the Discovery Channel site.
http://www.discovery.ca/Video?vid=871308
Found a few documents that may help better inform those who are interested in this subject. The first two, from 1986, provide some background on the initial conversion and concept of operation of the US Navy's current hospital ships. They seem familiar to me and I probably brought copies of one or both back from my late-1980s visit to the COMFORT and used them as reference in the service paper I wrote for my director. (Probably also used some as background in the development of a "ship's hospital" design for the Polar 8 icebreaker - the CCG requested our input for the medical facility that they included in that unrealized project. Strange as it sounds, back then I was the staff officer responsible for ships medical facility planning - obviously NDHQ was as screwed up then as it is now.)
T-AH Hospital Ship General Information Manual
https://archive.org/details/TAHHospitalShipGeneralInformationManual
INTRODUCTION TO T-AH 19 HOSPITAL SHIP
https://archive.org/details/INTRODUCTIONTOTAH19HospitalShip
This document was prepared by the Medical Liaison Team at the Supervisor
of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, . USN, (SUPSHIP) San Diego. It is designed
to familiarize new personnel with the general history, mission, and
physical characteristics of the T-AH 19 Class Hospital Ship. It is not a
statement of medical department or Navy pol icy am should not be represented
as such. Some of its information concerns general ship operation and details
but the primary thrust is toward the hospital functions and capabilities.
These concern possible replacement of MERCY and COMFORT.
http://www.mobilehospital.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ADA554335.pdf
Naval Surface Warfare Center NSWCCD-CISD–2011/004 August 2011 Hospital Ship Replacement
This has an interesting acknowledgement among the pers who contributed.
The HSR design team would like to sincerely thank the following for guidance throughout the project:
. . .
LCdr Robert D’Eon NSWCCD 2202, Canadian Navy Liaison
. . .
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a614483.pdf
NSWCCD-80-2014/039 August 2014
Development of the Hospital Ship Replacement (HSR) Concept – Maximizing Capability & Affordability
And what the Chinese are doing with their hospital ship.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a552566.pdf
Red Crosses, Blue Water Hospital Ships and China’s Expanding Naval Presence