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| Axis of Evil |
| US Navy Dispatches Hospital Ship To The Gulf |
| 2003-01-06 |
| Source: AP About 300 sailors were preparing Sunday to board the USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship scheduled to leave port Monday to aid in a possible war with Iraq. The crew of 225 Navy personnel and 61 civilian medical staffers were to be bused Sunday from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda to Baltimore, where the ship was docked, Lt. Cmdr. Ed Austin said. The Comfort was scheduled to leave Monday morning for the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. The 1,000-bed ship, painted white with red crosses, is part of a broad mobilization of air, land and sea forces for a possible invasion of Iraq. It has two operating rooms and is equipped to handle troops injured in biological and chemical attacks. The Comfort last deployed for war during Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991. It also sailed to New York to assist emergency crews after the collapse of the World Trade Center. Since it's painted white and has big red crosses on it, I hope they keep a safe distance from Yemen and any other place where it's likely to be greeted by little rubber dinghies. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |