|
|
Mercy Class Medical
Ships
The third USNS Mercy
(T-AH-19) is a hospital ship in the United
States Navy. She was named for the virtue
of compassion.Mercy
was built as an oil tanker, SS Worth, by National
Steel and Shipbuilding Company, San Diego,
California, in 1976. Starting in July 1984,
she was renamed and converted to a hospital
ship by the same company. Launched on 20 July
1985, USNS Mercy was commissioned on 8 November
1986. She has a raised forecastle, a transom
stem, a bulbous bow, an extended deckhouse
with a forward bridge, and a helicopter-landing
deck with a flight control facility.
Her primary mission
is to provide rapid, flexible, and mobile
acute medical and surgical services to support
Marine Corps Air/Ground Task Forces deployed
ashore, Army and Air Force units deployed
ashore, and naval amphibious task forces and
battle forces afloat. Secondarily, she provides
mobile surgical hospital service for use by
appropriate US Government agencies in disaster
or humanitarian relief or limited humanitarian
care incident to these missions or peacetime
military operations.
|
|
|