In the same vein as USNS Mercy’s tour in the Pacific last year, and USS Peleiu’s current deployment, USNS Comfort is heading to Central and South American on a humanitarian and medical aid mission.

Demonstrating the hybrid character of SysAdmin work, the mission requires coordination between DoD, DoS and NGO personnel:

Planners from the Navy and the State Department have been meeting at each of the host nations to determine where the ship might stop and what services it can offer, sometimes in cooperation with non-government organizations with permanent operations there.

Resources like the Comfort are having less warfighting relevence, while their soft power relevence is increasing.

Designed to support combat troops, the Comfort has seen limited wartime service because of the advanced medical centers the U.S. Army and the Marines have built on land in Iraq. The vessel deployed to New York after the 2001 terrorist attacks and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, but it arrived after the worst of the crises had passed and never needed its full medical capability, causing some to question its utility.

“People were saying, ‘Why do they need the hospital ships? What purpose do they serve?’” said Navy Capt. Bruce R. Boynton, commander of the ship’s 1,000-bed medical facility. “But what we’ve seen is they can be a very, very powerful platform for projecting America’s goodwill.”

“Obviously we’re going to have an immediate effect on some people’s lives, but I think the real impact will be measured after we leave, in six months to a year from now,” Kapcio said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to show that we’re committed to the region and committed to lasting relationships in the region.”

Read the whole thing.