9/11 Families - USS New York News

News
USS New York comes 'home' to harbor
By Bill Bleyer  bill.bleyer@newsday.com 
Published: Monday, November 2, 2009 
   



Photo credit: Getty/TIMOTHY A. CLARY | The USS New York, an 
amphibious transport dock ship, as it arrives in New York 
November 2, 2009. The ship,scheduled to be commissioned 
November 7 2009, has 7.5 tons of World Trade Center Steel in her bow.  

AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY 
(Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) 



ABOARD  THE USS NEW YORK - The USS New York, built with steel  
salvaged from the fallen Twin Towers, entered New York Harbor  Monday 
and paused for a moment in the waters off Ground Zero to honor those  
lost in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. 

A detail aboard the 684-foot,  $1.2-billion amphibious assault vessel fired a 
21-gun salute from the fantail  of the ship.

Firefighters and onlookers from the  shore acknowledged the salute, while 
aboard the ship the head of the September  11th Families' Association, 
president Lee Ielpi, had tears in his eyes thinking  about his son, 
Jonathan, 29, a firefighter and father of two killed on 9/11 -  as well as all 
those who gave their lives that fateful day.

"I'm thinking of my son,"  Ielpi said, as he watched the ceremonial exchange 
Monday. "It's a good  day. We're smiling through our tears."
Named in the wake of the Sept. 11,  2001, terrorist attacks, the USS New 
York's bow was built from 7.5 tons of  steel salvaged from the fallen World   
Trade Center.

It is in town for a commissioning  ceremony Saturday.

Escorted by NYPD helicopters, one of the newest ships in the Navy fleet 
sailed under the Verrazano  Bridge to a welcoming rainbow off Staten 
Island - and was acknowledged by fire boats shooting streams of red, 
white and blue water into the air near Governors Island.

 "It's fantastic," Cmdr.  Curt Jones said. "It really does feel like we're
coming home."

The New York is one of four ships of its type  currently either in service 
or ready for service. Another four are being built,  including two named 
for the other Sept. 11 sites: the USS Arlington, named for  the attack 
on the Pentagon;  and, the USS Somerset, named for the field in 
Pennsylvania where United  Flight 93 crashed after passengers 
overwhelmed terrorists.

The USS New York is the latest in a  long line of so-named ships dating 
back to a Revolutionary War-era gondola and  including a 36-gun 19th 
Century frigate, a 74-gun ship of the line, a screw  sloop, a Spanish-
American War-era armored cruiser, a World War I-era battleship  and 
a nuclear sub named USS New York City.

 "It's wonderful being on this  ship," said the chaplain, the Rev. Laura 
Bender of Lake Ronkonkoma,  an 11th-generation New Yorker and one 
of about 10 Long Islanders in  the crew of 359. 

 "The ship for me is a symbol of  how life always comes from death and 
strength comes from adversity. I really  feel we are sailing the World   
Trade Center  home and there will be a lot of healing just by moving past 
Ground Zero and  saluting the site and receiving a salute back from the 
fire department."

The morning aboard the USS New York  began with reveille at 4 a.m., a 
tradition that Monday was followed by a  fitting tribute to the ship's 
roots: a recording of Frank Sinatra singing  "New York, New York."

Before docking at Pier 88, next to  the aircraft carrier Intrepid, the ship 
will continue up the Hudson  to the George Washington Bridge,  then turn 
around and return to the pier Monday.

The ship's boatswain, Fred Tiedemann  of Woodside, a 26-year Navy 
veteran who oversees the deck equipment, said he  has served on a 
dozen ships. But said this one is special.

"I'm from New York, and I know some of the people who  went down in the 
towers," he said. "It's going to be pretty  special" returning the seven and 
a half tons of steel to Manhattan. "It means  a lot to the crew."

VIPs and Sept. 11 first responders  were flown out to the ship by Marine 
Chinook helicopters, including Ferg Foley,  chief operating officer for 
American Defense Systems, a Hicksville defense  contractor. On Sept. 11 
he was the senior officer in Manhattan for the Army National Guard and 
spent  two weeks coordinating the response at Ground Zero.

"It's amazing" to be  onboard, Foley said, "just knowing that it has some 
of that steel from Ground Zero and that it represents the fighting spirit of 
the United States. You can  sense the pride of the servicemen and women 
working on the ship."

For Lt. Melissa Proud of Glen Cove, the supply  officer, the New York  is 
her second ship in a decade in the Navy. She has been aboard for more 
than a  year. She said the New York  and its sister ships are the first to 
have "sit-up bunks" that give  the crew enough space to sit up in the beds 
that are stacked three deep.

The lower levels of the ship are  largely occupied with a hangar bay filled 
with two helicopters and two levels  below where vehicles from a tank to
a Humvee are parked, along with two amphibious  air-cushioned troop 
carriers powered by a pair of giant propellers that are  launched from a 
floodable well deck.

On the wide bridge Sunday, more than  a dozen personnel navigated with 
charts and radar and other video screens,  while one sailor steered with a
small black wheel and Jones, the captain,  watched from a padded chair 
on the starboard side. In the center of the  pilothouse floor was the ship's 
emblem showing the Twin Towers  and a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010

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