It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center.
It is the fifth in a new class of warship – designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.
Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship’s bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, “those big rough steelworkers treated it with total &nbs p; reverence,” recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. “It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.”
Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the “hair on my neck stood up.” “It had a big meaning to it for all of us,” he said. “They knocked us down. They can’t keep us down. We’re going to be back.”
The ship’s motto? “Never Forget”
Wouldn’t it be great if we could put that ship right in the middle of the Congress ~ tho I could see some of them wandering around saying, “Never forget what?”
Designed to fight terrorists. I wish them good hunting.
“It is the fifth in a new class of warship – designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists.”
What use is a warship against terrorists? Its a good weapon to have in a conventional blow-up-the-enemy-forces war – the type of ship that the US needs to have for dealing with threats such as North Korea and Iran. But terrorists? The problem there isn’t blowing up the enemy, but identifying who the enemy is, and avoiding damaging anyone else.
Thank you for this post. I wondered where all that steel went. Fitting that all that steel would resurrect into a military warship.