Avondale workers show off ship with Twin Towers steel

By Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune | October 03, 2009, 7:36PM

Ricky L. Kellum / Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding – Gulf Coast (Left) Cmdr. Curt Jones, USN, captain of USS New York (LPD 21), shows a shipbuilder James Iles, daughter Asley Iles, and his mother Denise Forsythe around the flight deck on the ship during Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding’s Family Ship Tour at Avondale shipyard today. The ship departs New Orleans Oct. 13 and will be commissioned in New York City on Nov. 7. Lt. j.g. Richard Reese vowed to join the U.S. Navy as he sat in his sophomore fine arts class at Jesuit High School seconds after he watched hijacked airplanes crash into New York City’s Twin Towers.

The Metairie native kept his word.

In the years since the Sept. 11,  2001,  terrorist attacks left 3,000 Americans dead,  Reese completed Jesuit’s Marine Corps ROTC program and earned his commission through Tulane University’s Naval ROTC program. After graduating at the top of his class at the Navy’s supply officer school,  he was able to choose which crew he wanted to join.

Reese could think of only one: the 360-sailor crew of the future U.S.S. New York,  a landing platform dock ship built recently at Avondale by hundreds of Northrop Grumman employees in the New Orleans area,  partly from the twisted metal of the towers he watched fall on television eight years ago.

The workers placed 7.5 tons of collapsed Twin Towers steel on the New York’s bow stem,  the part of the ship that knifes through the water when it sails.

“It’s what leads us forward at sea, ” Reese said. The Avondale shipbuilders “took an attack on us and turned it around. It’s awesome.”

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding’s employees,  who began construction of the $1.2 billion ship in 2004 and signed it over to the Navy in August,  spent Saturday showing off their handiwork to families and friends.

The visitors were led on tours of the 684-foot-long ship. Under two huge American flags hanging from a pole and a construction crane,  they roamed its flight deck  –  large enough to carry four helicopters or two Osprey aircraft,  which can drop Marines into war like a helicopter but zoom off to safety like a plane.

“We are confident we did an exceptional job, ” said Cy Dow,  who helped install the New York’s elevators,  steering and side port doors. “When I heard (Northrop Grumman) would build it,  I wanted to be a part of it.”

Capt. Curt Jones agreed with Dow’s assessment of the New York,  which will sail away from the Avondale shipyard Oct. 13 and will be commissioned at a ceremony in New York on Nov. 7.

Like other ships in the San Antonio class,  the New York is designed to carry 800 Marines,  their vehicles and their gear to war. Jones said no other ship in the class,  five of whose 10 ships have been completed,  has been put together so efficiently.

It showed its excellence during its tests,  he said.

Anthony Quaglino,  69,  of Harvey,  led his son Quinn,  40,  three young grandchildren and a school-aged neighbor on a tour. Quaglino,  who supervised the cranes involved in building the ship,  said he wanted them to personally take in “its very special identity.”

“I’m very proud of this ship, ” he said. Although it has yet to see action,  it already carries an “important piece of American history”  –  the Twin Towers steel his colleagues welded into it,  he said.

Florence Mitchell,  55,  of Marrero,  who distributed and managed many of the tools and safety gear the builders used,  said,  “I’ve never been a part of something so fabulous.” She toured the ship with her sister and best friend so they could share in the “beautiful experience” of creating it.

Standing in the ship’s shadow,  Reese watched the visitors tour the home the Avondale workers built for him and his fellow crew members.

Nodding his head,  he said they constructed “the best ship in the fleet.”

. . . . . . .

Ramon Antonio Vargas can be reached at rvargas@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3371.