Today's feel bettah news.
‘bout time
A navy warship being built with World Trade Center steel and to be christened the “New York" has earned a special place in the heart of Avondale, La., shipyard workers.
Junior Chavers, operations manager of the foundry, said when the steel first arrived in 2003, he touched it and the “hair on my neck stood up.”“It had a big meaning to it for all of us,” he told an Associated Press reporter. “They knocked us down. They can’t keep us down. We’re going to be back.”
The bow stem of the 700-foot boat - the front section that slices through the water - was molded from 24 tons of scrap taken from the Twin Towers.
When finished in 2008, the $700 million vessel will serve as an amphibious transport “landing dock,” carrying 360 sailors and 700 Marines on missions around the world.
The ship’s slogan is “Never Forget,” and the vessel is expected to play a role in the war on terror.
“It would be fitting if the first mission this ship would go on is to make sure that Bin Laden is taken out, his terrorist organization is taken out,” said Glenn Clement, a paint foreman.
Steel from the fallen World Trade Center rises today with the USS New York, a new class of warship.
One day, more of that steel will help forge the USS Somerset, named for Somerset County and the 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93, who fought terrorists and forced the plane into its final, fatal descent over Shanksville.
“The courage and heroism of the people aboard the flight will never be forgotten, and USS Somerset will leave a legacy that will never be forgotten by those wishing to do harm to this country,” former Secretary of the Navy Gordon England said.
As with the USS New York, the USS Somerset’s bow will contain about 24 tons of steel salvaged from the scorched, crooked framing and interior makeup of the towers after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to the Naval Vessel Register.
Instead of futile arguments over an embarrassing hole in the ground or absurd hassles about some crescent-shaped mongrel, this is a living memorial.
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