Description
Whether you’re saving lives aboard the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) or you owe your life to those efforts, this challenge coin is a reminder of all those who dedicate themselves to saving others while at sea.
Launching its industrious sailing career in 1976 as an oil tanker, the USNS Comfort was resuscitated in 1987 to become the world’s largest floating hospital, along with her sister ship, the USNS Mercy. Always in a high state of readiness, the Comfort and her crew are prepared to dispatch rapid, mobile medical services to the U.S. military in combat, in addition to humanitarian disaster relief and hospital care.
As a fully civilian-operated medical facility, USNS Comfort’s only offensive weapons onboard are those that combat sickness and injury. With more than 700 Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery civilian personnel in service, the ship furnishes 1,000 beds, 12 operating rooms, 4 X-ray machines, 1 CAT scan, an angiography suite, physical therapy support, a dental suite, two oxygen plants, and fresh-water facilities generating up to 300,000 gallons a day.
Operations such as Desert Storm, Noble Eagle, and Iraqi Freedom employed these amenities to their fullest. Civilians also owe their lives to the extensive facilities and skilled crew in humanitarian missions such as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Operation Continuing Promise. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the USNS Comfort operated as a base for rescue workers in New York.
Minted in antique bronze and highlighted by bold blue enamel, this oval challenge coin honors the crew of USNS Comfort (T-AH 20). The obverse features the ship centered boldly as a helicopter prepares to deliver a patient in need. The reverse displays the Comfort’s coat of arms with its motto “CURARE AEGRA PERMARINUM” meaning “care of the sick on the sea.”
Each coin measures: 2 1/4 inch x 1 3/4 inch (57mm x 44mm) Oval.
™ Department of the Navy. Officially Licensed by the Department of the Navy.
