NEW YORK (USTCNS) --- Aboard USNS Comfort...More than a week has passed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Guiliani is now publicly asking the people of New York to try to return to their normal daily activities.

For those whose work buildings have been left standing and whose loved ones are still alive, transitioning back to business as usual will seem like the next logical step, moving on and showing the world the strength of our great nation.

For others, like the disaster relief workers who have been tasked with the difficult job of sifting through a mountain of mass destruction at the site where the towers and other surrounding buildings once stood, there is no moving on yet. There are only weeks of work ahead and thousands of individuals that need to be found and finally brought home.

"If you've only seen the area on television, you really can't understand its full impact. It is like the difference in looking at a picture of the Grand Canyon and actually being there," explains Capt. Ralph Bally, a Navy psychologist.

Bally is one of 11 members belonging to the Navy's Special Psychiatric Rapid Intervention Team, or SPRINT, aboard USNS Comfort. The Navy hospital ship has been moored at Pier 92 in New York City since last Friday. The crewmembers aboard are lending logistical support, like healthy meals, hot showers, clean clothes and a warm place to sleep, to the disaster relief workers.

Bally says Comfort's mission of caring is furthered even more by the SPRINT team's efforts. While the crew gets the disaster relief workers physically ready for another day at "Ground Zero," the SPRINT team prepares them mentally.

"We are trained to teach victims of trauma how to normalize their situation," says Bally. "What I mean is not that we can normalize what happened because what happened is just pure craziness, but we can explain to the disaster relief workers that some of the emotional things they are going through are normal and that, eventually, they will feel better."

SPRINT teams were initially designed to be first response mental health groups that deploy to the scene of traumatic events effecting large groups of people. The SPRINT team aboard USNS Comfort is operating differently than usual, making themselves available on board the ship to the disaster relief workers as they come for a break from the disaster scene.

"Essentially, everyone aboard the ship is really participating like a member of a SPRINT team," explains Bally. "We are all taking care of the relief workers' basic needs of food, water and shelter, which are the number one things they need to carry on with their job. And the crew members are also spending a lot of time talking with the relief workers while they are aboard, which is, in most cases, what they really want someone to talk to."

Navy Chaplain Lt. Dave Stroud, another member of USNS Comfort's SPRINT team, says the SPRINT team has organized a daily support meeting on board the ship for any interested disaster relief workers. They have also been handing out flyers down at the disaster site entitled "Taking Care of Yourself" that give lists of typical reactions to trauma and hints to dealing with the emotional stress.

"From what we've seen at "Ground Zero," most of the relief workers are doing a good job of supporting one another during this difficult process," says Stroud. "It's going to be a while before their work there is done, and then it will be even longer until they can come to terms with what has happened. None of us can make this all go away for anyone, but while they're on Comfort, they can get away from the site and remember that they still have families, loved ones and a life that they will eventually be able to get back to."

(FROM MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS)