9/11 Families - USS New York News

News

Brooklyn sailor proud to serve on ship USS New York to 
'change the world'
By Stephanie Gaskell
Published: Daily News  l  Sunday, November 1, 2009



US Navy Photo by MC3 Cory Rose
Electronic Technician 1st Class Thomas Grawl of Brooklyn:  
Every time I walk on board, I get chills.

ABOARD THE NEW YORK - Thomas Grawl got the chills when he boarded  
the New York  for the first time.

The Brooklyn sailor's  assignment on the ship made with 7.5 tons of steel 
from the World Trade Center is very personal. His cousin, Cantor Fitzgerald
Vice President Robert Scandole, was killed in the north tower. 

"That's why it was so important for me to serve on  this ship," said 
Grawl, 36, an electronics technician first class. "Every  time I walk on 
board, I get chills. I pray that he's proud of me. I pray that  he sees this." 

Dozens of New Yorkers were among the 360 crew members  serving on the 
ship that sailed from New Orleans to New York harbor on its maiden voyage 
to  Ground Zero. 

Chief Hakin Bristow, 32, of Harlem, did everything he could to get assigned 
to the ship. 

"I even took orders under my rank to get  here," said Bristow, an information 
systems technician. "This ship is going to change the world.  It's going to 
feel like we overcame what the terrorists did to us." 

The steel was used to make the ship's bow stem. 

"It's actually the strongest part of the  ship," said Cmdr. Curt Jones,  
the ship's captain, who is from Binghamton, N.Y.  "That steel literally leads 
us through the water." 

There were also about 200 Marines on  board the ship, including 
USMC Lance Cpl.  Stephen Churchill, 21, Levittown,  L.I. His father was with 
the NYPD's  Emergency Services Unit on 9/11 and responded to the trade 
center. 

"My dad was there and now I'm here with a ship  that rose from the ashes,"
he said. 

The sailors and Marines said they were looking forward  to sailing up the 
Hudson River,  past the World Trade Center  site, where so many cops 
and firefighters were on the front lines of a war that  began eight years ago.

"I know they feel a strong kinship to us and the  feeling is mutual," said 
Marine Col. Mark Desens. "I can't wait to  meet all of them.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

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