The hospital ship USNS Comfort recently deployed on a five month mission to Central and South America and the Caribbean. The ship will call on eleven nations in support of Continuing Promise 2015. The ship sailed with a new captain, the third, (or fourth) captain in the last 19 months. In August 2013, Capt. Kevin J. Knoop was relieved of duty by Rear Admiral Thomas Shannon and replaced by the ship’s Executive Officer, Rachel Haltner. At the end of March, Admiral Shannon relieved Captain Haltner of her duties as commanding officer. The Executive Officer, Capt. Miguel Cubano, briefly assumed command prior to the arrival of Capt. Christine Sears, Fleet Surgeon for the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. Fourth Fleet, who assumed permanent command just before the ship sailed.
The Comfort began her career as SS Rose City, a San Clemente-class oil tanker built in 1976 by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company. She was converted to a hospital shi and delivered to the Navy on December 1, 1987.