USNS Comfort Anything But Good For Sailors

Survey: Trust, exhaustion issues on Navy hospital ship
Associated Press
13NewsNow.com
August 18, 2015

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Stress levels were so high among sailors aboard a Norfolk-based Navy hospital ship preparing to provide humanitarian assistance to Latin America that the medical unit was not considered mission capable weeks before it was set to deploy in March, according to Navy documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

The commander of the USNS Comfort's medical unit, Capt. Rachel Haltner, was removed from her post two days before the ship left port. At the time, the Navy said the move was due to a "loss of confidence in Haltner's ability to command."

Navy documents released to The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act show sailors in the Comfort's medical unit reported low levels of trust in their leadership and felt mentally, physically and emotionally worn out before they ever deployed. The documents showed many respondents to a command climate survey said they got six hours of sleep or less per night, that there were communication issues and there was a lack of personnel to get the job done.
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