Today in The Baltimore Sun, I wrote about "angel flights," used for those who have died onboard the USNS Comfort. As aircraft land and depart throughout the day, the call eventually goes out for an "angel flight," a term familiar to anyone who has deployed to a war zone. For a brief moment the activity stops, a chaplain appears on deck, and crew members carry out the stretchers loaded with black bags. They are loaded onto the helicopter for a last flight to the island.

"We're mindful of the fact that these are extraordinary circumstances and many of these people have large families and loved ones who aren't with them right now. But we're a family and we're with them," said Cmdr. Dave Oravec, a chaplain at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and one of three serving aboard the Comfort.