USNS Comfort returns to Mayport

More than 100 U.S. military & civilian personnel on hospital ship come home

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – More than 100 U.S. military and civilian personnel returned home to their families Friday at Mayport after a six-month deployment.

One of those returning was Lt. Roberto Nieto

"Being away for six months and then having this welcome is extremely amazing," Nieto said.

His son, Facundo, was waiting for him.

"I'm glad my dad is home. He'll get to spend time with me," Facundo said.

PHOTOS: Families welcome home USNS Comfort

The USNS Comfort hospital ship is one of just two in the entire country.

Comfort's shipboard hospital is configured with specialized medical equipment and staffed by a multispecialty medical team of uniformed and civilian health care providers to offer a range of services ashore as well as on board the ship.

"My feelings are I'm just so proud of the more than 1,000 men and women on board the ship that were on the mission and the nine governmental organizations that are also on board," said Rear Adm. George Ballance, commander of the U.S. Fourth Fleet.

Of the 1,000 personnel aboard the USNS Comfort, 100 came home to Jacksonville, another 900 were taken to port in Norfolk, Virginia.

During deployment, the ship, which is the length of three football fields, visited nearly a dozen nations in Central and South America and the Caribbean. The Comfort is supporting Continuing Promise 2015, an effort to bring health care to communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. That mission will come to a close when the remaining CP-15 personnel return to Norfolk.

The mission group, CP-15, is a crew of 1,000 joint-service members, civil service mariners and nongovernmental agency personnel.

They treated more than 122,000 patients, conducted more than 1,200 surgeries and completed more than 90 engineering and building site projects.

Many families said knowing the mission made the deployment easier.

"It's just nice knowing that he's out there doing something important," said Chrissy Floyd, wife of Cmdr. Mikhael Floyd. "To be able to show the kids on the map where daddy's been. I tell them what he's doing and show them that they're helping people. It's amazing."