Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Charlotte Native Serves Aboard Floating Hospital During Humanitarian Mission

By Navy Office of Community Outreach

ST. LUCIA, West Indies - Navy Hospital Corpsman Luke W. Summers, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, is currently serving aboard USNS Comfort (T-AH-20), a large, mobile floating medical facility that provides assistance to victims of natural disasters while also providing international humanitarian relief.

Summers, originally assigned to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Virginia, provides dental and medical care to sailors and Marines. While aboard Comfort, he is a medical assistant providing humanitarian aid to those in need.

“I feel like everything we do here is making positive chances in people’s lives from acute care to major surgeries," Summers said. "We are able to provide locals with care they normally can’t receive even if it’s something we might thing is small or insignificant."

During it's five-month deployment, June to November 2019, Comfort will provide medical assistance in support of regional partners and in response to the regional impacts of the Venezuela political and economic crisis. Comfort will conduct mission stops in Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Summers has served in the Navy for two years and is a 2017 Weddington High School in Matthews, North Carolina, graduate.

**See link below for additional photo**
https://www.flickr.com/photos/navyoutreach/48827337436/in/dateposted/

For more information on USNS Comfort Deployment 2019, visit https://www.southcom.mil/Media/Special-Coverage/USNS-Comfort-Deployment-2019-Hospital-Ship-Mission-to-Latin-America-Caribbean/