Archive for January, 2010
The MERCY last deployed with COMFORT during the 1991 Gulf War. The time is now for them to serve together off of Haiti. official U.S. Navy photo.
Situation is critical on COMFORT according to the Baltimore Sun’s Robert Little. His article today entitled “Comfort’s Ability to Help Stretched to Limit: Too many need attention for ship to take them all” is a must read. Excerpts include:
…The largest and most capable hospital in Haiti today, the Comfort is reaching its breaking point…
The ship’s space and supplies are overtaxed, forcing the crew to contemplate declining new admissions. The injuries are so abundant and severe that an otherwise acceptable caseload is unmanageable, forcing providers to choose between declining care and forgoing rest and food…
…”Even if every day we could have a critical-care flight of 20 patients out of here, we wouldn’t be able to keep up,” said Capt. Andrew Johnson, the ship’s director of medical operations.
That reality, Johnson said, is forcing the medical staff to consider declining care to some critically injured patients, if only to free up room and resources that could be used to save more people.
…Already the ship is caring for more burn patients and premature infants, for instance, than it can handle. It has run out of breathing ventilators, and incubators for sick babies. The operating rooms are on a 24-hour schedule…
…Capt. Jim Ware, commander of the ship’s medical facility, said the Comfort has cared for more patients in the last five days than it did during all of the two wars in Iraq. With a patient population of more than 400 and a staff and crew of more than 1,000, it has been transformed, in less than a week, from a dormant hospital floating in Baltimore into one of the busiest U.S. Department of Defense medical facilities in the world.
Full article here.
Yes, I know about the tyranny of distance from San Diego to Port-au-Prince. According to distances.com, it would be a 5,281 mile voyage taking some 11 days.
Yes, I know the MERCY is presently at a shipyard in San Francisco through the beginning of March.
Yes, I know that it is manpower intensive. Call-up reservists and guardsmen. You know how to reach me. (I would make a great blogger/social media guru aboard MERCY).
Have Project Hope recruit more volunteers! Recruit personnel from across the inter-agency. Get our coalition partners involved. Hire contractors.
Yes, I know it would require a backfill in the Pacific.
Yes, I know it is expensive. Hold another tele-a-thon.
Yes, it would require lots of supplies.
I was hoping I would never have to write this post.
Just as the Haiti earthquake confirmed my calls for a larger fleet of hospital ships, Little’s article left me with no choice to urge the activation of the USNS Mercy.
God Speed MERCY!
Posted by Jim Dolbow in Uncategorized | read comments (19)Thought this might be of interest since some of you have expressed interesting in volunteering your medical expertise. From Mercyships’ Blog:
Haiti: Volunteer
Thank you so much for your interest in helping with the relief efforts in Haiti. Like you, we have been watching the news and devastation following the tragic earthquake trying to wrap our minds around the reports of thousands dead and many missing in the aftermath of Haiti’s crisis and wanting to help in the best way we can.
Mercy Ships is not a first response agency, we are better suited to be involved in the reconstruction and redevelopment which takes place two weeks to two years after a disaster. With this in mind, Mercy Ships is in contact with our partners on the ground in Port-au-Prince to determine what their needs are and once we know that and are confident that logistics are in place to accommodate teams, we will be looking to send in teams to help.
In the meantime we are collecting names and contact information of potential volunteers. Once we get your contact information, we will send you an application. Please take time to complete this as soon as possible and we will be in touch regarding the next step.
To sign up as a volunteer, click here.
Thanks again for your help.
Let’s continue to pray for Haiti.
Good luck and God Speed.
Fellow USNIBlog contributer EagleOne and I spent the first half hour discussing the lessons so far in Haiti from a maritime perspective, with regular commenter Leesea adding his thoughts as well.
For the second half of the hour we had two great guests to discuss the experiences of “the other Navy” – armed, ashore, and providing critical support for the Long War.
Regular in the Navy Blogosphere, our “Yeoman in the ‘Stan” AKA “Battle Yeoman” calls in from Bagram, Afghanistan and joined us for two segments. We also had CDR Charlie Malone, former Commanding Officer of Navy Provisional Detainee Battalion FIVE, Camp Bucca, Iraq – he led the best keeping an eye on the worst.
One programming note – your host had some technical difficulty, so the first minute is dead air – push through that and the show is off and running. Give it a listen.
Sailors aboard the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) fill water jugs to be distributed to Haitians affected by the recent earthquake. Official USN photo.
On 23 January 2010, I participated in a DOD Bloggers Roundtable with Captain Bruce Lindsey, USN, Commanding Officer of the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70).
I asked him what advice would he give future carrier captains that find themselves responding to a natural disaster?
CAPT. LINDSEY: That’s a good question. And I think what you have to say is each one of these natural disasters is different. Although you can say that there is a humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and that is a core competency of the United States Navy, each one of these is slightly different.
In my mind, I’ve been thinking about that, and it seems to break down into two types. One would be the hurricane-type of relief that you’d have in Katrina. The other would be this earthquake relief that we’re doing down in Haiti.
So there’s a little bit of difference there. The infrastructure is broken in both of them, is damaged very heavily. But the injuries are so severe in an earthquake, whereas I think in the hurricanes you don’t have as many injuries in that regard — the damage done to the bones and the head trauma.
So there is a little bit of difference, and so I’d say to them that you need to think about that. But really, what we do is we rely on the ingenuity of the United States sailor.
Like I said, they created this water tree, and that came from the Lincoln carrier, when they were doing Banda Ache. They had created this, and so our sailors went online, found the lessons learned, and created another one, improved it, tweaked it a little bit so, as I said, we can put out a lot of water.
So I would say that you have to be flexible. You have to have — believe in your sailors, because they’re the ones that will have the solutions to the problems that you face immediately upon arrival.
I wore my navy history hat for my other question and asked Captain Lindsey, “can you tell us where the ship was when the earthquake hit and what would you like the historians to write about the Vinson’s role?”
CAPT. LINDSEY: We had just gotten under way for our first deployment after a little over four years in the shipyard, on a complex refueling/overhaul. Got under way on 12 January.
And within 12 hours, we got the order to head south towards Mayport and onload helicopters, maintenance personnel, and as much supply as possible, and get under way eight hours later — not pulling into Mayport, but continuing on to get down here as fast as possible.
As you are well aware, a nuclear aircraft carrier has speed as its advantage. And we used that advantage, going over 30 knots the entire time, to arrive off of Haiti on Friday in the early morning, and started conducting flight operations immediately.
So I think that that is one thing I think is important, to see that the speed and then the flexibility of how we tailored the flight deck to this mission.
Full transcript here.
Become a fan of the USS Carl Vinson on Facebook here.
Follow the USS Carl Vinson on Twitter here.
USS Normandy Arrives off Coast of Port-Au-Prince Haiti Relief. Official USN photo.
On 22 January 2009, I participated in a DOD Bloggers Roundtable with the Normandy’s Commanding Officer, Captain Jeffrey Thomas Griffin, USN.
I asked him what would you want Naval history to record about the Normandy’s first nine days off the coast of Haiti?
CAPT. GRIFFIN: Well, I would say, first and foremost, that we were in what we refer to as a 24-hour readiness that’s readiness for sea, which means I have to be able to get under way no later than 24 hours. And I was pretty proud of the crew that we almost halved that, especially getting the call at 2:30 in the morning when we had to recall the entire crew and get things rolling.
So I just think maybe our response that we were under way in a little more than half of our requirement to be under way, and that just shows, you know, the can-do spirit of the American sailor and how when they’re called upon for a real-world mission like this that they do what they need to do to get the ship to sea safely.
Full transcript here.
Follow USS Normandy on Twitter @USSNormandy
Since being labeled dinosaurs by a former Navy Surgeon General, the MERCY and COMFORT have been reactivated for emergencies 3 times in addition to deploying on numerous HA/DR missions. Pretty impressive feat for dinosaurs, don't you think? photo by Jim Dolbow
Christopher Munsey wrote in the 9 August 2004 edition of Navy Times an article entitled, “Navy medicine moves closer to combat zone: Hospital ships likely to retire, surgical teams head ashore in new plan to treat wounded.”
According to Munsey:
The Navy’s retiring top doc says combat medicine is better done on the battlefield than on a ship at sea.
As a result, hospital ships like Comfort and Mercy soon will be retired. And the recent trend toward smaller, more flexible and more mobile hospitals on land will continue.
Vice Adm. Michael L. Cowan, the Navy surgeon general and chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said the most visible symbols of Navy medicine, the hospital ships Comfort and Mercy, likely will be retired in the coming years.
“They’re wonderful ships, but they’re dinosaurs,” he said.
Crewed by Military Sealift Command civilian mariners, Comfort deployed for what became Operation Iraqi Freedom in January 2003.
About 1,200 medical and support personnel from National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Md., and other East Coast clinics staffed the Comfort’s 1,000-bed hospital last year. The ship’s hospital treated coalition wounded, prisoners of war and Iraqi civilians…
… “They were designed in the ’70s, built in the ’80s, and frankly, they’re obsolete,” Cowan said.
As an alternative to Comfort and Mercy, options are still being studied to include trauma treatment spaces aboard the Navy’s next generation of amphibious ships, he said.
The eventual move away from big hospital ships at sea is mirrored by a trend toward smaller, more flexible and more mobile hospitals on land, Cowan said.
Thank God the COMFORT and MERCY survived the cutbacks and were not prematurely retired.
The absurdity of them being labeled obsolete was dispelled less than 5 months later when the USNS MERCY was activated in response to the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004.
Moreover, according to the commanding officer of the USNS MERCY’s Medical Treatment Facility, “When the Indonesian military leader in Banda Aceh thanked Mercy there were “tears in his eyes,” proving that a “hospital ship can be the best diplomat of the 21st century.” (p. 96 of Waves of Hope: The U.S. Navy’s Response to the Tsunami in Northern Indonesia h/t Information Dissemination
Fast Forward to Haiti today. Could the Port-au-Prince airport have handled all the additonal flights needed to ferry the medical capability, personnel, and supplies etc brought to the relief mission by COMFORT? I doubt it.
![USMC_EGA]](http://blog.usni.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/USMC_EGA.jpg)
Just a few short years ago, the possibility of the United States Marine Corps presence in Iraq ending any way except in defeat was dismissed almost entirely by legions of doubters and naysayers whose skepticism and predictions of doom daily crowded TV newscasts, radio, and newspapers. Yet, there is news today that the remaining elements of II MEF are headed back to Camp Lejeune, NC, from a peaceful and quiet Al Anbar province. A small logistics element will remain for a short time, but the redeployment effectively ends seven tough years in a complex and fierce close-quarters fight against a determined and well-equipped enemy.
Back in January of 2004, as the First Marine Division was readying for deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom II, then-Division Commander MajGen J. N. Mattis delivered the following letter to his Marines:
Letter to All Hands,
We are going back in to the brawl. We will be relieving the magnificent soldiers fighting under the 82nd Airborne Division, whose hard won successes in the Sunni Triangle have opened opportunities for us to exploit.
For the last year, the 82nd Airborne has been operating against the heart of the enemy’s resistance. It’s appropriate that we relieve them: When it’s time to move a piano, Marines don’t pick up the piano bench – we move the piano. So this is the right place for Marines in this fight, where we can carry on the legacy of Chesty Puller in the Banana Wars in the same sort of complex environment that he knew in his early years. Shoulder to shoulder with our comrades in the Army, Coalition Forces and maturing Iraqi Security Forces, we are going to destroy the enemy with precise firepower while diminishing the conditions that create diversarial relationships between us and the Iraqi people.
This is going to be hard, dangerous work. It is going to require patient, persistent presence. Using our individual initiative, courage, moral judgment and battle skills, we will build on the 82nd Airborne’s victories. Our country is counting on us even as our enemies watch and calculate, hoping that America does not have warriors strong enough to withstand discomfort and danger. You, my fine young men, are going to prove the enemy wrong – dead wrong. You will demonstrate the same uncompromising spirit that has always caused the enemy to fear America’s Marines.
The enemy will try to manipulate you into hating all Iraqis. Do not allow the enemy that victory. With strong discipline, solid faith, unwavering alertness, and undiminished chivalry to the innocent, we will carry out this mission. Remember, I have added, “First, do no harm” to our passwords of “No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.” Keep your honor clean as we gain information about the enemy from the Iraqi people. Then, armed with that information and working in conjunction with fledgling Iraqi Security Forces, we will move precisely against the enemy elements and crush them without harming the innocent.
This is our test-our Guadalcanal, our Chosin Reservoir, our Hue City. Fight with a happy heart and keep faith in your comrades and your unit. We must be under no illusions about the nature of the enemy and the dangers that lie ahead. Stay alert, take it all in stride, remain sturdy, and share your courage with each other and the world. You are going to write history, my fine young sailors and Marines, so write it well.
Semper Fidelis,
J.N. Mattis
Major General, U. S. Marines
Commanding General, First Marine Division
What General Mattis expressed to his Division is true of each and every Marine unit who served there. To every Marine who played a part in the story of the Corps in Iraq, thank you. You did indeed write history, and wrote it extraordinarily well. Future generations of Marines will look upon your accomplishments in Naziriyah, Ramadi, Fallujah, Habbaniyah, and dozens of other places with the same reverence with which ours looks upon the Marines in Hue and Khe Sanh. Your country and your Corps owes you a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. I am proud to have served with you and to have played my small part, as well. Semper Fidelis, Marines.
Posted by UltimaRatioReg in Foreign Policy, History, Marine Corps, Uncategorized | read comments (8)USNI Blog has received many inquiries from medical personnel across the country interested in volunteering aboard the Navy hospital ship USNS COMFORT. We are so proud of our readers.
Please expess your interest in serving to Project Hope.
Project Hope has partnered with the U.S. Navy for over 50 years. They are currently taking applications for volunteers. Please go here to volunteer.
Project Hope rocks! I saw them in action aboard COMFORT last year. I want to go to medical school just so I can volunteer with them.
Good luck with your applications! Remember, Haiti relief operations are a marathon and not a sprint so dont despair if you are not down there next week.
Thank you. Please keep us posted.
The recent surge in firings Navy-wide has revived the questions about what might be wrong in the leadership culture of the Navy. A recent study by Joris Lammers and Adam Galinsky should give us something to think about as we attempt to identify the problem and construct a solution. Their first conclusion appears to be that power does indeed corrupt:
In their first study, Dr Lammers and Dr Galinsky asked 61 university students to write about a moment in their past when they were in a position of high or low power. Previous research has established that this is an effective way to “prime” people into feeling as if they are currently in such a position. Each group (high power and low power) was then split into two further groups. Half were asked to rate, on a nine-point morality scale (with one being highly immoral and nine being highly moral), how objectionable it would be for other people to over-report travel expenses at work. The other half were asked to participate in a game of dice.The dice players were told to roll two ten-sided dice (one for “tens” and one for “units”) in the privacy of an isolated cubicle, and report the results to a lab assistant. The number they rolled, which would be a value between one and 100 (two zeros), would determine the number of tickets that they would be given in a small lottery that was run at the end of the study.
In the case of the travel expenses—when the question hung on the behaviour of others—participants in the high-power group reckoned, on average, that over-reporting rated as a 5.8 on the nine-point scale. Low-power participants rated it 7.2. The powerful, in other words, claimed to favour the moral course. In the dice game, however, high-power participants reported, on average, that they had rolled 70 while low-power individuals reported an average 59. Though the low-power people were probably cheating a bit (the expected average score would be 50), the high-power volunteers were undoubtedly cheating—perhaps taking the term “high roller” rather too literally.
Taken together, these results do indeed suggest that power tends to corrupt and to promote a hypocritical tendency to hold other people to a higher standard than oneself.
Fortunately, Drs. Lammers and Galinsky’s second conclusion suggests a route to remedy:
Half of 105 participants were asked to write about a past experience in which they had legitimately been given a role of high or low power. The others were asked to write about an experience of high or low power where they did not feel their power (or lack of it) was legitimate. All of the volunteers were then asked to rate how immoral it would be for someone to take an abandoned bicycle rather than report the bicycle to the police. They were also asked, if they were in real need of a bicycle, how likely they would be to take it themselves and not report it.The “powerful” who had been primed to believe they were entitled to their power readily engaged in acts of moral hypocrisy.
In short, it would seem the Navy should integrate into its regular leadership training some way of identifying those with a sense of entitlement and bring them back to earth before it causes problem on the deckplates.
Most naval history fans have heard of Oliver Hazard Perry, Thomas Macdonough and James Lawrence (“Don’t give up the ship!”) and the big battles waged against the British on the Great Lakes in the War of 1812. But who has heard of Capt. Joshua Barney, who led the Chesapeake Flotilla during the War of 1812? A seasoned Navy veteran of the American Revolution, Captain Barney was responsible for identifying the weaknesses in the Royal Navy’s armada that was terrorizing Maryland and Virginia at the time.
In Flotilla: The Patuxent Naval Campaign in the War of 1812, author and marine archaeologist Donald G. Shomette describes the Chesapeake Bay as a collection of estuaries and vast array of navigable waters that allowed the British to stretch deep into the U.S. homeland – en route to Washington, D.C. (and the eventual burning of the nation’s capital). In a lecture at the Navy Memorial this week, Shomette recounted how the Brits’ deep-draft ships hindered their mobility in the shallow Chesapeake and they had to rely on barges to reach the more shallow creeks and ponds and to ferry their troops ashore and to reach the shallow rivers and creeks.
To combat this threat, Captain Barney successfully convinced the secretary of the Navy at the time to build a heavily-armed, shallow-draft fleet of row galleys (or barges) that could nimbly out-maneuver the British in these shallow waters. It was a desperate move, as the Royal Navy’s assets far outnumbered the Americans’. (Estimates were that the mighty Royal Navy had more than 1,000 ships of war and the Americans had approximately 16 at the onset of the War of 1812.)
The flotilla that Captain Barney built was comprised of 26 ships and approximately 500 sailors. They valiantly tried to defend the massive coastline and harbors leading farther inland. He was successful in eliciting a singular victory at St. Leonard’s Creek and he made a heroic effort at Bladensburg in August 1814. But, without ancillary support and a choreography between land and sea forces, Captain Barney’s flotilla was doomed.
The Chesapeake campaign was a diversionary one, as the stakes were much higher in the Great Lakes. But, it served a purpose, hindering the British forces’ advance to Washington. And author Shomette highlights the lesson that Captain Barney’s service and sacrifice illuminated: defending a coastline with a brown-water maritime force is not sufficient. A blue-water force is necessary to defend against commensurate enemy forces determined to invade our shores.
To learn more about this book, go to www.navymemorial.org.
Posted by The Bunny in Uncategorized | read comments (5)Tags: Chesapeake Flotilla, Joshua Barney, Navy Memorial, War of 1812
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