WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON - With a $20 million, 24-nation aid effort under way for victims of the fighting in Georgia, the USNS Comfort, Baltimore's familiar white-hulled hospital ship, remains idle at its Canton pier, though on standby for possible deployment to the region.
The Pentagon sent a military team into war-ravaged Georgia yesterday to determine what supplies are needed and the most effective ways to deliver them. Two Air Force C-17 cargo planes have already carried basic loads of shelter, food and clothing.
The Comfort, with its 12 operating rooms and fully staffed 1,000-bed hospital, could provide badly needed medical services. The ship is also capable of producing large quantities of fresh water.
But Lt. Cmdr. Steven Pigman, an administrative officer on board the Comfort, said it would take five days to get under way. Most of that time is required to load food and medical stores and assemble its medical and support staff of 1,000 to 1,200 people.
At the ship's cruising speed of 17.5 knots, it would take just over two weeks to travel the 5,840 nautical miles from Baltimore to Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti.
There are other options.
The Pentagon is prepared to airlift mobile field hospitals to Georgia, which would be quicker than sending the Comfort, and the units could be deployed in rural parts of the country if needed, officials said. The Defense Department also has access to mobile water purification units that could be airlifted as well.
International aid officials have described a confusing situation in Georgia, with units of Russian troops roaming outside the contested enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and militias in unmarked uniforms on the streets. Russian troops invaded Aug. 7 after an escalating confrontation over the two disputed regions.
The United Nations refugee agency said one of its assessment teams was attacked yesterday by a paramilitary group, which hijacked their vehicle at gunpoint. The vehicle was later recovered and the U.N. officials were unhurt.
The Pentagon's operations in Georgia could put U.S. military personnel directly in contact with Russian forces. The teams will be authorized to act in self-defense but will not be "confrontational," officials said.
"I don't see any prospect for the use of military force by the United States in this situation," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters.
