jim:

its not as bad as you think. the worst part of the project is the guys that say you can’t do it. it can be done and probably quite easily. it simply takes the political will to do it. as buzz aldrin said, once the decision is made going to the moon is simply an interesting engineering problem.

as you should know by now i was active in the reactivation of two battleships during the 80’s (lord knows i have babbled enough about it.) and we found a couple of interesting things.

at the start there was a terriffic hugh and cry about manning the ships. we expected that the navy would need upwards of 25,000 men to staff the 4 ships. wasn’t really a problem as old timers came out of the woodwork to do the job. as a matter of fact we had an excess of certain rates (gunners mates as i remember) enlisting and putting in transfer chits for the ships.

then we heard that the modern snipes could not run the propulsion plants, but you know they could and did and were proud to do it. of course we won’t mention those hundreds of beautiful little steam turbines that we replaced with 1-5 hp electric motors, but whats that amoung friends.

these two ships are converted tankers. that means the sailing crew will be about 1/10 what a navy ship would be. the problems will be in the medical side. but that bunch is notorious liberals that have a habit of telling us what we should be doing for the downtrodden. well tell them to put their money and their sweat where their mouth is.

with money and a wink and a nod from someone with a really stiff sleeve i would say mercy could get underway in about a month. of course that could be way to late but nobody consulted us on the earthquake schedule.

C

Actually there are reports that the dry dock work has been cancelled and the shipyard employees laid off, as the ship may be pulled out early from the work being done.

See comments here:

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/johnrabe/2010/01/19/jrblog-usnsmercy/

and more here:

http://penguinsix.com/2010/01/26/is-the-usns-mercy-being-readied-for-haiti-deployment-drydocking-cancelled/

the thing about having a “hospital ship” there is that the ship could be expected to have all of the dumb little details in place. there is no doubt that a ship in the harbor at anchor has much less of a problem of the important equipment and supplies “evaporating”.

yestereday morning one of the LA radio stations was interviewing a doctor in haiti and he was complaining that the donated xray machine had no film, film holders, developing equipment….. and was probably set up for 50cycle electricity.

the stuff on a ship works and the supporting stuff is in the locker because the technician checked it.

besides giant white ships with two acre american flags flying at the stern make up for a lot of helicopter trips.

C

leesea,
I agree that the footprint for a fleet hospital is large but now that forces are on scene, it would not be too difficult to find 22 acres (or even 50-60 acres when you add in the various support infrastructure, security, etc).
While there are benefits of having a ship (reduced infrastructure ashore, ready made security, all in one packaging, better photo ops, etc) The benefits of the Fleet Hospital are even better:
– Easier access to patients
– Easier coordination with other medical facilities. You could even set up in the same compound with civilian aid agencies and then gradually phase out the Fleet Hospital as the civilian assets become able to meet the need. You could even turn over the vast bulk of the equipment to the civilian side as you leave, can’t do that with a ship.
– Normal resupply becomes easier as you restore infrastructure.
– Easier transition to health care focus from emergency surgery.
– Easier integration of Haitians into your organization to build HN capability. You could gradually employ Haitians in virtually all the support roles like stretcher bearers, cleaning, etc. This would both reduce military manpower and employ local people.
– It’s modular, you can readily increase capacity or change capacities. Not so easy on a ship, usually what you have is what you have.
The FH, EAF, and SEABEE gear is not on every ship in the MPS squadron, (so it is not on LUMMUS) but conveniently it is all together on the same ship in the squadron. And it is a lot of stuff which was why they used LMSRs for the three MPS-E ships. So your SEABEE gear arrives with the Fleet Hospital. A win-win.

two things:

in haiti the more the civilians mix in the grounds/work areas the greater the “evaporation problem”.

also turning over the hospital to the locals when we leave. can the locals support a modern 2010 hospital or will it fairly rapidly go moribund. modern hospitals are EXPENSIVE to operate.

we see a common thread with the third world countries that want for their railroads modern diesel locomotives (that they have to import everything for including fuel, lubricating oils as well as repair parts) as an indication of status where their level of technology actually supports coal burning steam locomotives designed and built a century ago.

C

leesea and USNVO:

pardon the question, but a survey of the SAT photos on Google Maps shows a large (about 3X4 km) area of agricultural land about 8-10 km WNW of Port-au-Prince that looks like it could accommodate a large complex like a field hospital. Further WNW (about 3km more) along route 1/100 there’s an even larger area available.

I don’t see a space problem, though it would probably require a certain amount of clearing (and watch out, the rainy season is coming). Looks like there’d be space for tent cities too…

11 days for transit (and USS Mercy is not ready in SF) is a long time, though worth it. But any sea transport available to bring more East Coast medical assets?

So does everyone still have the question on his mind: who the heck is in charge? The national government can’t handle it and everyone else is still too PC to finally let one boss command the operation without having to spend hours soothing someone’s ego?

An interesting LIFE magazine article which appeared in 1959 for a ‘New Great White Fleet’ along the lines of what has been discussed here and in a previous blog item. The URL is a little long but it goes straight to the article which you can read in full.

http://books.google.com/books?id=EEoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17&dq=%22white+fleet%22&lr=lang_en&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1956&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1961&as_brr=0&as_pt=MAGAZINES&ei=zyBjS8rdBIvazQT2oJzhDw&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22white%20fleet%22&f=false

I have no inside knowledge about what is or is not occurring aboard the Comfort..but I do know this.

The mercy is not laid up she’s standing by. She’s scheduled for a deployment this year to the Pacific rim. She’s in preparation for that mission right now.

http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=51550

The USNS Mercy has been deployed since the Gulf war in 1991. Several times in fact.

The Mercy deployed as recently as September 2008 & 2006.

http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=64691

For hundreds of photos of the US Navy activity in Haiti follow the link below. Just type Haiti in the search box on the top right side of the page.

http://www.navy.mil/view_photos_top.asp

Big Daddy Popeye making corrections and assisting the “navally challenged” on line since 1999.