Pulling in naval ships to house the sick isnt unprecedented? When has something similar happened in the past 100 years?
Just 1 example ...
Stationed in
San Diego, California,
Mercy primarily operates in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Her inaugural mission in 1987, was a humanitarian cruise to the Philippines and South Pacific. Her first military mission was serving coalition troops in the
First Gulf War. The first disaster relief came in the wake of the 2004
tsunami as
Operation Unified Assistance. Her latest was in 2013, when she came to the aid of the Philippines, and other nations in the aftermath of
Typhoon Haiyan.
Stationed out of
Norfolk, Virginia,
Comfort operates primarily in the Caribbean and Latin America. Her first mission was a combat one: serving coalition troops off the coast of Kuwait, during
Operation Desert Storm. Her first humanitarian missions both happened in 1994, helping Haitian and Cuban immigrants looking to come to America. In the aftermath of
9/11,
Comfort was activated and sent to Manhattan, to provide medical and mental health services.
Comfort headed into combat again for
Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2005, she was back saving American citizens following the devastation of
Hurricane Katrina. In 2010, she undertook another disaster relief mission, in response to the Haiti earthquake. In May 2015,
Comfort was in
Kingston, Jamaica, providing medical services including optometry, dentistry, general medical, women’s health, pediatrics, and pharmacy. The Jamaica leg was part of ‘Continuing Promise’, a nearly six-month humanitarian mission across the Caribbean region. Once again in 2017,
Comfort was deployed to aid American citizens in Puerto Rico after
Hurricane Maria.
In March 2020, the ships were deployed to aid in the fight against the
coronavirus pandemic.