You wouldn't think that diving for lobsters could lead to bedsores -- but it can if you don't take precautions while diving and end up paralyzed. Navy Commander David Damstra explains how military…
To most Americans, the vet is the doctor who cares for family pets. But in poor countries like those the USS Kearsarge will visit in Latin America, the vet can be key to keeping families fed. Cmdr…
It's no coincidence that the USS Kearsarge deployed to Latin America for Operation Continuing Promise in the heart of the Atlantic hurricane season. Cmdr. David Damstra said the ship wants to be…
A blogger asked that of Cmdr. David Damstra, head of the medical team on the USS Kearsarge. Damstra said private groups like Project Smile already do great work, but the Navy can help them -- and…
Cmdr. David Damstra, head of the medical team aboard the USS Kearsarge, explained how Operation Continuing Promise materialized. The planning for the joint humanitarian mission took months.
When the USS Kearsarge comes to port in Latin American countries between now and December, it will have plenty of people and an array of medical supplies to conduct Operation Continuing Promise.…
Word has it that the motto of military life is “hurry up and wait” After a couple of days aboard the USS Kearsarge, I certainly believe it -- but without the hurry up part. The bloggers onboard…
The USS Kearsarge has a gym equipped with all manner of equipment so the men and women aboard can stay in shape. And they do stay in shape. Just about everyone in uniform I’ve seen aboard this…
I mentioned the inter-service rivalry in passing once already. It has reared its ugly head at least one other time on this trip, not because of the diversity of people currently aboard the USS…
I missed the memo. It was an important memo, too -- the one to bloggers that said to be sure and bring shower shoes onto the USS Kearsarge. Apparently foot fungus , known as "jungle rot" in…
The USS Kearsarge produces nearly 200,000 gallons of fresh water a day from the steam that powers it through the ocean. All that steam makes one hot workplace for the sailors who keep watch over…
Representatives from every branch of the U.S. military, and from other countries, manned the rails of the USS Kearsarge as she departed Norfolk, Va., on Operation Continuing Promise to Latin…
A few hours after the USS Kearsarge departed Norfolk, Va., for Operation Continuing Promise, the helicopters that will be used on the mission took flight from somewhere along the East Coast and…
The blog presence aboard the USS Kearsarge is a first. We are the Navy’s new media virgins -- and it shows because the service doesn’t know what to do with us. It took the folks in charge of the…
We learned quite a bit about life at sea today, but there were two highlights from my perspective: the arrival of the helicopters at about 2 p.m. and the “underway replenishment,” – or “unrep” in…
The USS Kearsarge includes an intensive care unit and patient ward that rival those of U.S. hospitals. Navy Corpsman Stephen Heiss gave bloggers a tour and discussed how the hospital will be used…
That’s about how much fresh water the USS Kearsarge creates from the ocean as it travels. The ship is steam-powered, and if I understand the explanation in the engine room today correctly, one…
That would be the engineers in the heart of the ship. They keep it powered and running. They'll tell you themselves that they're the hardest workers onboard, but take a tour of their work area and…
That’s what the USS Kearsarge is – on this mission in particular but also for all of its missions. The medical area contains one of the largest naval hospital's, according to a Navy communications…
Overheard in the hallways of the medical area aboard the USS Kearsarge, one Army veterinarian talking to another: “We have to keep them from getting so sick that the people can’t eat them.”…
Here’s an interesting factoid we gathered from lunch today with a Northrop Grumman contractor onboard the USS Kearsarge: His company pays the full salaries of any of its workers who are taken…
An Air Force nurse we bloggers met last night joined us for lunch this afternoon. Like all of us, he’s a first-timer on a Navy ship. He wondered aloud whether all of us have started a betting…
Last night in the wardroom, the mess hall where the officers eat, the ship’s physician only half-jokingly told us land-loving bloggers to take Dramamine on our short tour of duty, or we better not…
The USS Kearsarge comes alongside the USS Laramie for an "underway replenishment," known by the shorthand UNREP. The slow dance at sea occurred about eight hours after the Kearsarge deployed from…
The U.S. military gets a fair rap as a bureaucracy that wastes money right and left. So I was shocked today to hear that penny-pinching accountants in the Navy are hesitant to let photographers…