9/11 Families - USS New York News

News

Troy resident serving on USS New York
By Tom Caprood
Published:  The Record   l  Monday, November 2, 2009

TROY — A city resident is among a select few in the Navy with the 
privilege of serving aboard a ship made in part from pieces of the  
fallen World Trade Center.
           
Thomas F. Casey, 19, is a crew member aboard the USS New York, 
a vessel which  has been under construction in Louisiana  since 2004 
and was first christened in March of 2008.
         
The ship’s bow stem includes seven and a half tons of steel which was 
recovered  from the World Trade Center’s  twin towers and melted down 
after the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001.
         
It is scheduled to arrive at the WTC site today and be honored during a  
commissioning ceremony in New York City on Saturday.
         
“We’re making history,” said Casey on Friday, as the vessel lay docked 
off the  coast of North Carolina on its voyage toward New York. “It’s tough  
work but it’s great, and I just can’t believe that I was lucky enough to get  
these orders.”
         
Casey has served in the Navy for about a year and a half and happened 
to  receive his first deployment aboard the historic vessel.
         
His responsibilities, and those of his fellow crew members, include driving 
the ship, standing lookout watches, and doing search and rescue 
operations with the  small boats at their disposal.
         
According to the ship’s commissioning Web site, the “San Antonio” class 
vessel will be used to transport and land Marines, their equipment and 
supplies by  embarked air cushion or conventional landing craft, along 
with Expeditionary  Fighting Vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, 
augmented by helicopters or  vertical take off and landing aircraft.
         
The USS New York will also support amphibious assault, special operations, 
or expeditionary warfare missions.
         
While Casey expects to be aboard the ship for another two years, all 
anyone  aboard the ship could think about recently was their upcoming 
arrival in New York City and the  massive crowds that are expected to 
turn out for the events.
         
“In Louisiana  we had a day where people could come take tours on the 
ship and I think we had  a turnout of about 5,000 people, which was 
really surprising because we were  expecting a couple hundred,” said 
Casey. “Everybody wanted to come see it.”
         
Casey’s father, Thomas J. Casey, who works as a city firefighter and is 
the city Republican chairman, said the arrival and commissioning were 
sure to be  very emotional events for him and his family after coming 
from a family of  firefighters, considering the 9/11 connection, and 
having his father, who was a  Navy veteran, pass away a few years ago.
         
“We’re going to be down there Monday when the ship comes in and I’ll be 
a  wreck. Every time I talk about it I choke up,” he said Friday, noting 
that his  entire family was thrilled when they heard about his son’s 
assignment. “We  couldn’t be prouder.”
         
Overall, Casey considered the ship he’s serving aboard to be a valuable 
stealth  asset to the U.S. Navy, the Marines, and to the people of New 
York.

“The job that it can do of bringing Marines close to land — it’s very 
stealthy.  On radar the ship almost looks like a small fishing vessel 
and in reality it’s  this massive war ship,” said Casey. “Right now I think 
it’s the most important  ship in the Navy.”

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

911 Families © 2009