Monday, March 03, 2008

The USS New York christened

Some of the steel from the World Trade Center ruins has been used in an amphibious assault ship for the United States Navy, christened the USS New York in ceremonies this weekend. From "Ship Built With WTC Steel Christened," by Becky Bohrer, AP, as published at examiner.com, March 1, 2008 :

When the attacks occurred, the ship was planned but had no name. Then-New York Gov. George Pataki asked the Navy to commemorate the disaster by reviving the name New York. That required an exception to Navy policy of assigning state names only to nuclear submarines.

The steel from the towers is now part of the ship that splices through the water, leading the way.

"It resurrects the ashes, so to speak, to do great things for our nation," said Bill Glenn, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, the ship builder.

Along with the steel from one of the worst terrorist attacks in the U.S., it also survived one of the nation's worst natural disasters: Hurricane Katrina.

The ship motivated many of the Avondale shipyard workers to return to the job, even though many lost their homes in the 2005 storm.

(via Rick Moore)

There's more at the official Navy website: New York Christening Powered by Memories, Resolve. The ship is due to be commissioned in September 2009. It "will be the Navy's fifth amphibious transport dock of the San Antonio class." (Speaking as a civilian and a landlubber, I wouldn't have had a clue what an "amphibious transport dock" was, if someone hadn't provided a picture, or a good description. It makes it sound like a big raft, or something like that. Which it definitely isn't.)

Hats off to the Avondale shipyard workers, and everyone else who has helped bring this project this far.

No, on second thought, make that three cheers.

No comments: