DoD: Ready to respond to COVID-19 with ships, respirators, ventilators and crews!

DoD poised to provide supplies to combat virus

Fort Hood Sentinel
By C. Todd Lopez, DoD News
Mar 19, 2020

WASHINGTON — As part of the president’s whole-of-government approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic, the Defense Department has agreed to provide medical supplies and capabilities to the Department of Health and Human Services to help combat further infections, Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper said.

The Defense Department will make available up to 5 million respirator masks and other personal protective equipment from its strategic reserves to the Department of Health and Human Services for distribution, Esper said during a news conference at the Pentagon today, adding that the first million masks would be made available immediately.

Esper said some 2,000 deployable ventilators would also be made available to HHS. Those devices, he said, are different from civilian equivalents and will require special training for civilian users, so DoD personnel likely will provide that training.

To help measure the spread of the coronavirus, the Defense Department has also made 14 certified testing labs available to test non-DoD personnel, and two labs would be added to that total, the secretary said.

Additionally, Esper said, DoD officials are considering use of the National Guard, the Reserve components, and capabilities such as the Navy’s hospital ships USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy. He said the Comfort is undergoing maintenance now and the Mercy is in port.
read it here

Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) departs Naval Base San Diego in support of Pacific Partnership 2018 (PP18) on Feb. 23, 2018. US Navy Photo

This video is from 2014 and but shows what the USNS Mercy crew is prepared to do.

Sailors describe their jobs and responsibilities aboard USNS Mercy.

UPDATE
US Navy hospital ship Comfort reportedly won't be ready for weeks

New York Post

The US Navy hospital ship Comfort that President Trump said would be dispatched to New York

First lady offers a White House welcome for Hampton Roads sailors

First lady offers a White House welcome for Hampton Roads sailors

By Hugh Lessig

247-7821

10:30 PM EDT, July 31, 2009


NORFOLK - First lady Michelle Obama on Friday pledged the administration's continued support for military families in addressing homecoming sailors, their spouses and children at Naval Station Norfolk.

"I will use every ounce of my power in this position to highlight the sacrifices that you make, and to rally the country around you," she said. "It won't stop today."

Mrs. Obama addressed military families in the 2008 presidential campaign and has maintained that theme during her husband's first months in office.

Hampton Roads offered her a built-in audience.

Some 6,000 sailors arrived home this week with the return of the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower from supporting coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Also this week, the USNS Comfort arrived in Norfolk, bringing home 42 staff members of Naval Medical Center Portsmouth from a four-month humanitarian mission in the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Speaking directly to an audience of about 250 on a wind-whipped pier, the first lady praised the crews of the Ike and the Comfort and highlighted areas of President Barack Obama's budget that benefit service members. That includes a pay raise and more permanent forces to reduce the stress of long deployments.
read more here
First lady offers a White House welcome for Hampton Roads sailors