[Old Crow]

I apologize if this was posted before and I missed it but this was e-mailed to me and I thought others would be interested. The text is obviously from last year:

With a year to go before it even touches the water, the Navy's amphibious assault ship USS New York has already made history. It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center . USS New York is about 45 percent complete and should be ready for launch in mid-2007. Katrina disrupted construction when it pounded the Gulf Coast last summer, but the 684-foot vessel escaped serious damage, and workers were back at the yard near New Orleans two weeks after the storm.

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.

"It would be fitting if the first mission this ship would go on is to make sure that bin Laden is taken out, his terrorist organization is taken out," said Glenn Clement, a paint foreman. "He came in through the back door and knocked our towers down and (the New York ) is coming right through the front door, and we want them to know that."

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, La., to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 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'

Here is a photo of the USS San Antonio, a sister ship- the New York is apparently still under construction:

[admin]

I saw this on the Military Channel. It's pretty cool that they used WTC steel in it's construction.

[djjeffhall]

Old Crow,
Thanks for posting that story, I had never heard it before.

[mustangdriver]

That is awsome. So cool that the WTC stuff is in there. I was at ground zero on 9/14! As you can imagine it was a nightmare.

[Captain Eddie]

Neat story, Old Crow, thanks for sharing it!