| abstract | - Like her sister ship USNS Mercy, Comfort was built as a San Clemente Class oil tanker in 1976 by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company. Her original name was SS Rose City and she was launched from San Diego, California. Her career as an oil tanker ended when she was delivered to the Navy on December 1, 1987. As a hospital ship, Comfort's duties include providing emergency, on-site care for U.S. combatant forces deployed in war or other operations. Operated by the Military Sealift Command, Comfort provides rapid, flexible, and mobile medical and surgical services to support Marine Corps Air/Ground Task Forces deployed ashore, Army and Air Force units deployed ashore, and naval amphibious task forces and battle forces afloat. Secondarily, she provides mobile surgical hospital service for use by appropriate U.S. government agencies in disaster or humanitarian relief or limited humanitarian care incident to these missions or peacetime military operations. Comfort is more advanced than a field hospital but less capable than a traditional hospital on land. When not actively deployed, Comfort is kept in a state of reduced operations in Baltimore harbor. She has been used many times over the years and kept ready to ship out of Baltimore with five days notice. After a quarter-century in Baltimore, MD, USNS Comfort changed her homeport to Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, VA in March 2013. The move placed the ship nearer supplies, much of which come from Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, and to medical crew. Savings to the Navy are estimated at $2 million per year.
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