USNS Mercy

USNS Mercy is one of the most capable hospital ships ever built — converted from a supertanker and commissioned in 1986 with 12 operating rooms, 1,000 patient beds, and a crew of Navy medical professionals ready to go anywhere in the world on short notice. She deployed to the Persian Gulf during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and has brought humanitarian medical relief to disaster zones from the Philippines to Haiti. When the call comes, Mercy answers — and for the people she reaches, there is no more welcome sight on the horizon.