Thursday, September 11, 2008

USS New York: Never Forget!


You may have heard or read about the USS New York back in the Spring... It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center...

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions th at 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.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, Louisiana to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on September 9, 2003, 'those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,' recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. 'It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.'

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'

1 comment:

aspiring... said...

Until reading this blog post, I had no idea - as did not many others I asked. How could that be? Thank you for including coverage of the topic here.