The joint military crew and various non-governmental organization (NGO) volunteers serving aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) commenced humanitarian-civil assistance operations on July 8 in Colombia as part of Continuing Promise 2015 (CP-15).

Colombia is the seventh mission stop during CP-15's six-month deployment. The CP-15 crew, NGO volunteers, Colombian medical professionals and Ministry of Health volunteers provided no-cost medical and dental services to more than 700 patients during the first day of operations.

"Overall, it was a great day for dual operations, conducting both surgical screenings and medical care at the same site." said Cmdr. Jason Daily, the medical site officer in charge. "Working with the Ministry of Health has been beneficial to our team and to the patients receiving care. If follow-on care is required, we work together to ensure the consult request is submitted, and in turn, they will get that patient the follow-on care they require."

Comfort's last visit to Colombia was in 2011 where the ship anchored in the vicinity of Tumaco. Medical teams treated 4,832 patients, including 126 surgeries completed aboard Comfort.

Looking forward to this year's mission stop, Comfort has already hosted multiple SMEEs alongside 50 host nation participants, to include members of Colombia's naval academy that conducted a course on basic trauma care, the evaluation of 56 animals and seven veterinary surgical procedures, a labor and delivery class and a public health awareness health fair.

Additional SMEEs are planned throughout the mission stop at Direccion de Sanidad Naval, Hospital Distrital Luis Albauque, and aboard Comfort. The veterinary team will conduct veterinary SMEEs at multiple locations including Buenaventura Navy Barracks and Buenaventura veterinary clinic. A veterinary civil affairs program site will be set up in coordination with the Colombian Ministry of Health and the local NGO, Huellitas.

Before medical operations commenced, Comfort's Chaplain Services department coordinated a community relations (COMREL) event at Colisco Del Centro on July 7 where Comfort crew members worked alongside local artists to design and paint a mural depicting the CP-15 mission.

"The event went really well," said Religious Program Specialist 1st Class Jonathan Coreson. "The local artists have a specific message they want to send with the art; it is one of cooperation and shared values which we were excited to be a part of. I think this type of collaboration shows that we value our partnership with Colombia."

Additional COMRELs are planned to include a beach cleanup project in Juanchaco, and soccer, volleyball and basketball games, competing against local Colombian teams, including a sports field day competition with the host nation members of the Bahia Malaga Naval Base.
The engineering portion of the CP-15 mission includes the Navy Seabees assigned to Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (CBMU) 202, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Jacksonville, Florida, working alongside host nation engineers to conduct flooring, roofing, electrical and air conditioning projects at Cavana Primary School, Citronel Escuela Anibal Munoz Duque Primary School and Hospital Luis Alblaque.

Comfort has completed mission stops in Belize, Guatemala, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador since deploying in April. Additional stops are planned for Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Honduras.

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/.