In Memory

The U.S.S. New York Has One Mission: Fight Terrorism

Archive 2008 – 2019

The U.S.S. New York Has One Mission: Fight Terrorism

by Charlie Collie
4/18/2016

By United States Navy, Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Tiffini M. Jones – Navy NewsStand Photo ID: 080301-N-8273J-344Navy NewsStand Home, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3648032

It’s top speed is 22 knots, pretty slow you think until it deploys its’ sixteen aircraft filled with 700 combat ready marines. At the stem bar, the round part of the ship’s bow where it cuts through under the water sits 7.5 short tons of steel melted down from the rubble of the World Trade Center, a constant reminder of its’ mission and its’ motto: Never Forget.

Some Navy ships launch missiles and fire guns, some ships carry much needed supplies; some ships launch jets and planes; this Navy ship deploys hundreds of Marines—very quickly. It was New York governor George Pataki who requested that the Defense Department build a ship dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center with its’ only mission being to fight terrorism. Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in New Orleans began construction in 2003. During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the ship was still being built.

 They are melting the steel from the towers!

The New York was christened on 1 March, 2008 at the Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans. Members of the New York Police and Fire Departments as well as relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attack attended the ceremony. The  U.S.S. New York is the fifth San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock to be built and it is also the fifth ship of the United States Navy to be named after the state of New York. It has a crew of 360 and can transport 700 marines. The ship has a massive back door that lowers to deploy Air Cushion Landing Craft and other fighting vehicles. On its deck, it can launch 14 Sea Stallion, Sea Knight, and Sea Cobra attack helicopters. In addition, the ship has fore and aft missile systems as well as dozens of 30 MM Chain Guns. The ship bristles with state-of-the-art electronics.

The first  U.S.S. New York was a gundalow built in 1776 on Lake Champlain. It was involved in what was considered the first Naval action of the United States against the British in the battle of Valcour Island. Another New York, a 36 gun frigate commissioned in 1800 was burned by the British in 1814. A 74 gun New York that was built in 1820 never left the stocks and was also burned by the British.  A U.S.S. New York, BB-34, a battleship, saw action in both World Wars.

                              9/11, North Grafton, Massachusetts

I remember it being a perfect New England day in September. At the time, I was a GED instructor at one of the national Job Corps, a work-education program started by JFK and run by his brother-in-law Sargent Shiver. The Peace Corps is the other one. I was at the board in my classroom explaining something to my class when one of the students came into the class crying and said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center in New York. By the end of the day, terrorists had attacked three different states and destroyed New York’s World Trade Center. The world changed that day forever. The terrorists also crashed a plane into the Pentagon in Washington, and crashed another hi-jacked airliner into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The terrorists attacks on the United States on 9/11/2001 killed 2,996 Americans and injured 6,000. The cancer deaths of first responders now nearly equals the number of those who died during the attacks.

                                     World Trade is rebuilt.

The newly built World Trade Center is now a single tower and is the tallest sky scraper in the Western Hemisphere and the 6th tallest building in the world. It was completed in May of 2013 and stands at 1,776 feet tall. It is now called the Freedom Tower and contains the National September 11th Memorial and a Museum. The cost to rebuild the World Trade Center was estimated at 3.9 billion dollars.

To honor the victims of the terrorists attack, the Department of Defense is building two sister ships to the U.S.S. New York which will be named the Arlington and the Somerset to commemorate the places where two of the other planes used in the terrorist attack came down in Arlington County, Virginia, and Somerset County, Pennsylvania. There’s an old saying, “Never pick a fight with the United States Navy.” The new USS New York and its’ two new sister ships are three more reasons not to.

“Peace is the highest aspiration of the American People. We will negotiate for it; we will sacrifice for it; we will not surrender for it; now or ever.” Ronald Wilson Reagan.

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Charles Collie is a former reporter for a CBS television station in Ohio. Charlie and his family moved to Holliston in 1995. He is semi-retired and still enjoys writing about politics and current events.