USS New York: Tragic pieces transformed into fighter vessel
September 15th, 2008
Normally, I try to avoid the rah-rah feel-good patriotic spiels favored by some pundits. They’re too cheap, too easy, too pandering. But one year from now, the amphibious transport ship USS New York is being commissioned in the city for which it was named, and that simple fact says more about the character of this nation than a thousand country songs.
Truth be told, this landing platform dock (LPD-21) isn’t much of a beauty. She isn’t sleek or especially majestic — in pictures she kind of looks like a big gray box. But she’s a warship, built to hit the beaches with up to 800 Marines as well as both assault vehicles and helicopters. In other words, if you did something stupid and an LPD is coming your way, you’re in for a world of hurt.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the USS New York’s makeup is the approximately 24 tons of steel from the World Trade Center used in her construction. Scrap metal from the center, destroyed during the 9/11 attacks of 2001, was melted down to make the bow of the hull. The ship’s motto, fittingly enough, is “Never Forget.”
I’m sorry to be such a sap, but there’s a lyrical, almost uniquely American perfection to the idea of taking the ruins from one of the worst days in our history to help build an instrument of vengeance. It was welcome news as we approached the seventh anniversary of 9/11, which is for me usually a season of frustration — an annual reminder of the misdirected follies in Iraq and our failure to apprehend Osama bin Laden.
Don’t get me wrong — it’s still pretty annoying to know bin Laden hasn’t been brought to justice. But this year that frustration is tempered somewhat by the existence of the USS New York. It’s not only a ship of war, but a vessel symbolizing for the world our resolve and tenacity. It’s a reassuring reminder of this country’s strength of character, a demonstration of our ability to, quite literally, pick up the pieces and renew the fight.
A Navy captain at the scene later told the media that when the melted metal was poured into the moulds for the ship’s bow section, “those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence.”
“It sounds trite, but I saw it in their eyes,” added Philip Teel, head of the ship systems division for Northrop Grumman, the company that built the ship. “These are very patriotic people, and the fact that the ship has steel from the trade center is a source of great pride. They view it as something incredibly special. They’re building it for the nation.’
One shipbuilder, a guy named Tony Quaglino, was due to retire after 40 years on the job, but he held off for the opportunity to work on the New York. “This is sacred,” he told a reporter.
The ship’s steel was tested yet again in 2005, by Hurricane Katrina. The New York was built and christened in New Orleans, and during the hurricane many of the workers lost their homes. Some had to live at the shipyard afterward during construction, but the ship survived intact.
The New York is a San Antonio-class vessel, a new-and-improved generation of amphibious assault ship so cutting edge that plans call for 12 of the new LPDs to essentially replace 41 ships of the older classes.
Tempered by stubborn determination, baptized by Mother Nature and designed with bad intent, this is going to be a vessel to be reckoned with.
If you ARE in the mood for some artistry, however, I give you Longfellow’s “O Ship of State,” which includes the lines: “We know what Master laid thy keel/What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,/Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,/What anvils rang, what hammers beat,/In what a forge and what a heat/Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!”
D. Allan Kerr is such a relic his old ship USS Guam was decommissioned 10 years ago. Kerr may be contacted at the_culling@hotmail.com.
