Ensign Tom Diggs is a paramedic with the Ferndale Volunteer Fire Company, so he is used to seeing some grim scenes.

But he wasn't quite ready for what he saw in Haiti as a Navy intensive care nurse serving aboard the USNS Comfort.

"It was a surprise to see the level of devastation," the Glen Burnie man said. "I can say that the people down here have experienced a life altering, life changing event. I've seen, unfortunately, the aftermath of many different events but I've never seen anything on this scale."

Now Diggs and other members of the Comfort crew are on the way home, and could...