Personnel aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), currently deployed in support of Continuing Promise 2015 (CP-15), commemorated Navy Nurse Week and celebrated the Navy Nurse Corps' 107th birthday with a cake-cutting ceremony May 13.

Capt. Christine Sears, commanding officer of Comfort's Medical Treatment Facility, offered birthday wishes to the nurses embarked aboard.

"Thank you to all the Navy Nurse Corps officers for your dedication, service, and professionalism," said Sears. "For 107 years the Navy nurse has embodied all that nursing can and should be - caring for our beneficiaries in peace, our Sailors in war, and our fellow global citizens in humanitarian missions such as this."

Capt. Cindy Baggott, director of nursing services and senior nurse executive, read birthday greetings from Vice. Adm. Matthew Nathan, surgeon general of the Navy and chief of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED). Nursing team representatives read additional birthday greetings from Rear Adm. Rebecca McCormick-Boyle, director, Navy Nurse Corps; Major Gen. Jimmie O'Keenan, chief, Army Nurse Corps; Rear Adm. Raquel Bono, director, Navy Medical Corps; Rear Adm. Terry Moulton, director, Navy Medical Service Corps; Rear Adm. Stephen Pachuta, director, Navy Dental Corps; and Force Master Chief (FORCM) Sherman Boss, director, Hospital Corps and FORCM for BUMED.

The most senior Nurse Corps officer, retired Capt. Colleen McLarnon, and the most junior Nurse Corps officer, Ensign Norving Gutierrez, were selected to cut this year's birthday cake. McLarnon, a 30-year Navy veteran, is serving as the head medical director for the embarked non-governmental organization Project Hope. Gutierrez, assigned to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP), Virginia, works in Comfort's Casualty Receiving department.

After the cake cutting, Navy chaplains, Capt. George Adams and Lt. Cmdr. Jay Kersten, performed the blessing of the hands ceremony. As they blessed each person, Adams recited the prayer, "Nurses Hands."
The blessing of the hands tradition is open to all Nurses no matter their religion, explained Adams. The ceremony honors the role of nurses providing compassionate care to others as well as helps reaffirm their commitment to the nursing profession.

Nurses Week is an internationally celebrated recognition event that was first observed in 1954, marking the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's mission to Crimea. It begins each year May 6 and ends May 12, Nightingale's birthday.

The Navy Nurse Corps was established May 13, 1908, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Naval Appropriations Bill that authorized its creation as a unique Navy staff corps. The first 20 to graduate were known as the "Sacred Twenty," the first female members to ever formally serve in the Navy during World War I. They were assigned to hospitals in Annapolis, Maryland, Brooklyn, New York, Mare Island, California and Norfolk, Virginia.

The Sacred Twenty made broad contributions during wartime, including training field nurses, disease treatment, and providing educational programs for nurses. Baggott said the nurses embarked aboard Comfort for CP-15, composed of U.S. military, non-governmental organization, host nation, and partner nation members and representing diverse specialties, are doing their part to carry on the proud history of the Nurse Corps and make CP-15 a success.

"The nurses and hospital corpsmen embarked for Continuing Promise 2015 are providing direct care, patient education, and discharge planning for host nation patients undergoing procedures aboard the ship and at shore sites," said Baggott. "They are also collaborating with host nation colleagues for vital subject matter expert exchanges and community relations projects to foster enduring partnerships, build capacity, and strengthen interoperability."

Continuing Promise is a U.S. Southern Command-sponsored and U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet conducted deployment to conduct civil-military operations including humanitarian-civil assistance, subject matter expert exchanges, medical, dental, veterinary and engineering support and disaster response to partner nations and to show the United States' continued support and commitment to Central and South America and the Caribbean.

For more news from Continuing Promise, visit www.navy.mil/.