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08-21-2009, 07:53 PM
Navy takes delivery of amphib New York
By Alan Sayre - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Aug 21, 2009 15:51:02 EDT
AVONDALE, La. — With the signature of Cmdr. Curt Jones — inked at precisely 9:11 a.m. CDT Friday — the Navy took delivery of the New York, a $1 billion amphibious vessel with a bow containing 7½ tons of steel salvaged from the rubble of the World Trade Center.
Northrop Grumman Corp. formally turned over the transport dock ship — the fifth in the LPD San Antonio class of ships designed to carry Marines into assault operations — in a ceremony at the company’s shipyard along the Mississippi River near New Orleans.
“This ship is a first responder,” Jones, who will be captain of the New York, told the crew of about 360 sailors. “Your are first responders. Have no doubt what your mission is.”
The ship will leave the yard on Oct. 13 for a commissioning ceremony in New York City on Nov. 7. At that time, it will officially get the name USS New York.
The New York passed its sea trials last month in the Gulf of Mexico, the final step needed before the military took full control.
“You have delivered to us the best LPD ever delivered and perhaps the best ship ever delivered,” Jones said to the shipbuilders, several of whom had tears in their eyes.
The ceremonies included a cake cutting and the formal first raising of the U.S. flag.
Construction manager Tommy Barrett was with the New York project all the way, beginning before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005. The yard endured the storm, but construction was stopped for about five weeks until Northrop Grumman could get workers back to the region.
“When 9/11 happened, it was heart felt in the shipping industry,” said Barrett, a 33-year shipbuilder. “When they said they wanted to melt down some of the World Trade Center steel and use it in the ship, I definitely wanted to be part of it.”
When terrorist hijackers crashed two jetliners into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, destroying the twin towers and killing nearly 2,800 people, the ship was already on the drawing board. In September 2002, the Defense Department announced the selection of New York as the ship’s name to honor those who died in the terrorist attacks, the state and the city.
The Trade Center steel was melted at a mill in Amite, La.
Another construction manager with more than three decades in the industry, Doug Blethen, said he had worked on about 60 ships during his career, but the New York “is the most special of them all.”
Jones, of Binghamton, N.Y., said he learned of the Navy’s intent to make him captain of the New York — his first command in a 20-year career — about three years ago.
“It was one of those moments when you pinch yourself to make sure you’re alive,” he said.
The New York, which is 684 feet long, can carry up to 800 combat-equipped Marines. It has a deck from which fighting vehicles can be launched and a flight deck that can handle helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
The first four ships in the series — the San Antonio, New Orleans, Mesa Verde and Green Bay — are in service. There are four other ships in the class under construction: Somerset and Anchorage at the Avondale yard, and Arlington and San Diego at Northrop Grumman’s yard in Pascagoula, Miss.
Arlington and Somerset also carry names connected to Sept. 11: Arlington for the attack on the Pentagon and Somerset for the Pennsylvania county in which United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after being hijacked.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/08/ap_navy_new_york_082109/
By Alan Sayre - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Aug 21, 2009 15:51:02 EDT
AVONDALE, La. — With the signature of Cmdr. Curt Jones — inked at precisely 9:11 a.m. CDT Friday — the Navy took delivery of the New York, a $1 billion amphibious vessel with a bow containing 7½ tons of steel salvaged from the rubble of the World Trade Center.
Northrop Grumman Corp. formally turned over the transport dock ship — the fifth in the LPD San Antonio class of ships designed to carry Marines into assault operations — in a ceremony at the company’s shipyard along the Mississippi River near New Orleans.
“This ship is a first responder,” Jones, who will be captain of the New York, told the crew of about 360 sailors. “Your are first responders. Have no doubt what your mission is.”
The ship will leave the yard on Oct. 13 for a commissioning ceremony in New York City on Nov. 7. At that time, it will officially get the name USS New York.
The New York passed its sea trials last month in the Gulf of Mexico, the final step needed before the military took full control.
“You have delivered to us the best LPD ever delivered and perhaps the best ship ever delivered,” Jones said to the shipbuilders, several of whom had tears in their eyes.
The ceremonies included a cake cutting and the formal first raising of the U.S. flag.
Construction manager Tommy Barrett was with the New York project all the way, beginning before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005. The yard endured the storm, but construction was stopped for about five weeks until Northrop Grumman could get workers back to the region.
“When 9/11 happened, it was heart felt in the shipping industry,” said Barrett, a 33-year shipbuilder. “When they said they wanted to melt down some of the World Trade Center steel and use it in the ship, I definitely wanted to be part of it.”
When terrorist hijackers crashed two jetliners into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, destroying the twin towers and killing nearly 2,800 people, the ship was already on the drawing board. In September 2002, the Defense Department announced the selection of New York as the ship’s name to honor those who died in the terrorist attacks, the state and the city.
The Trade Center steel was melted at a mill in Amite, La.
Another construction manager with more than three decades in the industry, Doug Blethen, said he had worked on about 60 ships during his career, but the New York “is the most special of them all.”
Jones, of Binghamton, N.Y., said he learned of the Navy’s intent to make him captain of the New York — his first command in a 20-year career — about three years ago.
“It was one of those moments when you pinch yourself to make sure you’re alive,” he said.
The New York, which is 684 feet long, can carry up to 800 combat-equipped Marines. It has a deck from which fighting vehicles can be launched and a flight deck that can handle helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
The first four ships in the series — the San Antonio, New Orleans, Mesa Verde and Green Bay — are in service. There are four other ships in the class under construction: Somerset and Anchorage at the Avondale yard, and Arlington and San Diego at Northrop Grumman’s yard in Pascagoula, Miss.
Arlington and Somerset also carry names connected to Sept. 11: Arlington for the attack on the Pentagon and Somerset for the Pennsylvania county in which United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after being hijacked.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/08/ap_navy_new_york_082109/