Navy ship built with WTC steel goes into service

Sunday 08th November, 05:51 AM JST

NEW YORK —

The USS New York, built with steel from the rubble of the World Trade Center, was put into service Saturday both as a symbol of healing and strength.

“No matter how many times you attack us, we always come back,” Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said at the amphibious assault ship’s commissioning. “America always comes back. That’s what this ship represents.”

He spoke on a Manhattan pier where hundreds of Navy officers and sailors joined first responders and families of Sept 11 victims for the ceremony.

“I hereby place the USS New York in commission,” Mabus announced.

And with a long drum roll, the ship’s crew was sent on its first watch, obeying the order, as traditionally worded: “Man our ship and bring her to life!”

From atop the vessel, decked in red, white and blue bunting, black smoke rose into the chilly fall morning to signal that the USS New York was powered up. A loud cheer accompanied a flyover by Navy planes.

The 7 1/2 tons of steel debris from ground zero had been melted down to form the bow of the USS New York as “a symbol of our unshakable resolve; this is a city built of steel,” said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, representing the Obama administration.

Clinton was a U.S. senator from New York before she became the nation’s top diplomat.

She noted that many of New York’s iconic buildings were forged from steel, from the Statue of Liberty to the Chrysler building.

“But the strongest steel of New York has always been in the spines of its people,” Clinton said, calling New Yorkers “strivers and seekers, immigrants from every country, speakers of every language.”

The USS New York’s new skipper, Cmdr Curtis Jones, is a native New Yorker.

The ceremony began with a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, where an Army major opened fire Thursday, fatally shooting 13 people and wounding 29 others.

The $1 billion vessel was built near New Orleans by workers who survived Hurricane Katrina.

“They had to rebuild their lives and their homes at the same time as they built the ship,” said Irwin F. Edenzon, general manager for Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding-Gulf Coast, which built the USS New York.

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13 Comments

ninjohitokiri at 07:29 AM JST - 8th November

Bravo! God save America!
timorborder at 09:36 AM JST - 8th November

All very dramatic. Now let's just hope that them Navy boys don't crash their big gray war canoe into any objects.
adaydream at 09:56 AM JST - 8th November

Don't worry about them wrecking it. I'm more concerned about the Navy getting enough qualified civilians, who are too chicken to enlist, to serve on all their great Naval ships. < :-)
jinjapan at 10:22 AM JST - 8th November

i find this quite disturbing. america promotes & urges peace. & they take a building that was destroyed by terrorist & make a WARship. there is still nothing built at ground zero. couldn't they have used some of that steel to restructure a new building ??? not to mention also that as they promote peace they are the number 1 seller of arms worldwide. something wrong here.
InTheKnow at 10:38 AM JST - 8th November

“No matter how many times you attack us, we always come back,” Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said.

That quote is from the above article. Does Washington (and individual Americans) ever wonder why we are attacked in the first place? More than 6 years later, the American Army is still looking for the "dangerous WMD!" that Iraq was sitting on. No wait, that mission has morphed many times and is now... a quagmire. No other country has started or been a part of more wars than America. Impressive.
victimcrat at 12:59 PM JST - 8th November

One more addition to a force that helps make possible the cushy lifestyles so many of us foreigners enjoy in Japan, S Korea and Taiwan, to name but a few nations dependent upon US goodwill.
guest at 01:27 PM JST - 8th November

Peace through superior fire power!! America needs power to put down evil. Point blank, bottom line. WW2 Germany and Japan being prime examples of said evil. Money and steel put to good use.

Does Washington (and individual Americans) ever wonder why we are attacked in the first place?

Terrorists hate you, they intimidate weak minds, through intimidation and violence. Imagine a world without America and her USS New York, oh wait, you would not be free to imagine anything, or whine, if not from the comfort and stability that America provides, free of charge to the world, even the ungrateful saps like you. Your welcome!
Helter_Skelter at 01:42 PM JST - 8th November

InTheKnow

No other country has started or been a part of more wars than America.

You'd be speaking German if it wasn't for America so STFU!
Sarge at 01:49 PM JST - 8th November

Good will continue to triumph over evil.
SuperLib at 03:06 PM JST - 8th November

Anything that makes the radical left feel even more insucure is OK in my book. If it's a ship, then so be it. But in reality it could be anything and I'd be just as happy.
Madverts at 07:35 PM JST - 8th November

"Anything that makes the radical left feel even more insucure is OK in my book."

Heh, and lest you forget the flag-waving, chest thumping moments it gives certain radical ight wing Americans to bleat about "goodwill" they actually play no part in!
WilliB at 11:19 PM JST - 8th November

Meaningless, empty symbolism.

What exactly do they want to do with that shop? While they waste ressources building fancy military hardware, the real-life jihadists are bred right there at home, as the jihad shooting in Fort Hood underlines again.

So stupid.
Noliving at 06:40 AM JST - 9th November

Intheknow are you sure about that? The US has been in more wars then any other country? I'm sure quite a few european countries and asian countries have been involved in more wars then the US has been. Heck I'm even willing to be several middleeast countries too.