The USS New York is paying a call to the city for which she is named. This newest addition to the Navy is a San Antonio class amphibious assault launch craft, which means she will be packed to the gills with Marines ready to fulfill their core mission of amphibious assaults. Her keel was cast from seven and a half tons of steel recovered from the fallen towers of the World Trade Center. It looks like her mast just barely made it under the Verazzano Narrows bridge, but she’s docked near Battery Park now, saluting the site of the World Trade Center and giving her sailors a little bit of time in the big city.
After Veteran’s Day, she will sail to Norfolk, Virginia, and could see action as soon as her shakedown and training is completed in mid-2010, joining her sister ships the San Antonio, New Orleans, Green Bay, and Mesa Verde, replacing literally dozens of outmoded, smaller-capacity vessels. Makes you proud to be an American.
May Al Qaeda come to fear her guns.