[SatNews] From the ashes arises the USS New York…on the anniversary of the destruction of those lost in the World Trade Center comes a new beginning.
This is the USS New York which was made from 24,000 tons of scrap steel of the World Trade Center. Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, Louisana.
Steel from the World Trade Center is melted and poured for construction of New York, September 2003.
It is the fifth in a new class of warship—designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.
The ship is the first to be designed fully from the CAD-screen up to support all of the marines' primary mobility capabilities—Landing Craft Air Cushion and MV-22B Osprey.
Shortly after September 11, 2001, then Governor of New York, George E. Pataki, wrote a letter to Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England requesting that the Navy bestow the name "New York" on a surface warship involved in the War on Terrorism in honor of the victims of the September 11 attacks.
New York was christened on March 1, 2008, in a ceremony at Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans. Dotty England, the ship’s sponsor, smashed the traditional champagne bottle on the ship’s bow and christened the ship New York. Several dignitaries were in attendance, including Louisiana Congressman William J. Jefferson, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England, members of the New York City Police Department and the New York City Fire Department, and family members of September 11victims. The champagne bottle did not break the first time it was struck against the hull of the ship, but the second attempt was successful.
The ship was delivered to the Navy on August 21, 2009 at New Orleans. The ship's delivery was accepted by its first commanding officer, Commander F. Curtis Jones, USN, a native of Binghamton, New York. She set sail for Norfolk, Virginia, on October 13 2009. On November 2, 2009 the ship passed the World Trade Center site for the first time and gave the site a 21-gun salute.
On June 10, 2012 the ship was deployed for the first time to the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf region. It deployed with marines from 1st Battalion, 2d Marine Regiment, 2d Marine Division and returned in December 2012 along with the USS Iwo Jima and the USS Gunston Hall with Marines from the same unit attached to all three ships.
In late 2013, the New York shifted homeport from Norfolk to Naval Station Mayport in Florida, as part of the Iwo Jima ARG move.
In June 2014, the ship was used to transport Ahmed Abu Khattala, suspected mastermind of the 2012 Benghazi attack on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, back to the United States.
The contract to build New York was awarded to Northrop Grumman Ship Systems of New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2003. New York was under construction in New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The steel was melted down at Amite Foundry and Machine in Amite, Louisiana, to cast the ship's bow section. It was poured into the molds on September 9, 2003, with 7 short tons (6.4 t) cast to form the ship's "stem bar"—part of the ship's bow. The shipyard workers reportedly treated it with "reverence usually accorded to religious relics", gently touching it as they walked by. One worker delayed his retirement after 40 years of working to be part of the project.
Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade Center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up. It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."
The ship's motto…Never Forget
