UPDATE:USS NY WARSHIP!! World Trade Iron machine

9/11 ship nearly ready If everything is on schedule, the nearly finished USS New York, built with salvage from the World Trade Center, will be commissioned soon. She will sail as a permanent memorial to all who lost their lives as a result of 9/11. The 684-foot warship has been under construction by Northrop Grumman since 2004, after being awarded the contract late in 2003. Twenty-four tons of steel from the World Trade Center wreckage was melted to cast the bow stem. The bow stem is the foremost part of a ship; it cuts first through the water and provides hull integrity. While she's not the first ship named for the state of New York, her naming did not originate in the normal fashion. Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, Gov. George Pataki asked the secretary of the U.S. Navy to bestow the name USS New York on a surface warship involved in the war on terror, to honor the victims. The request was approved the following year. The ship is scheduled for a commission ceremony on March 1 in Avondale, La., with official delivery to the Navy in 2009. The namesake and steel of this San Antonio-class amphibious ship are not its only milestones. Sea vessels are built space-efficient, and civilians who've toured retired military ships know how tight it feels to move around. The USS New York's design has been modified, so sailors can navigate throughout her more easily and more quickly. "Electronically, we took the average Marine in full battle gear and ran them through the passageways of a three-dimensional model," said Woody Oge, site director of New Orleans Operations, NGSS, in a military press release. "(W)hat we found in the initial design was we had to do some slight tweaking of piping system and power distribution or move certain systems, so we have a Marine move through the passageways unencumbered. This was done throughout the ship." San Antonio-class ships embark, transport, and land elements of an assault landing force by helicopters, vertical take-off and landing aircraft, air cushion landing craft, and amphibious vehicles. The USS New York is designed to deliver a fully equipped battalion of 700 Marines. The ship is certainly formidable, with four 40,000-horsepower engines, two missile launchers, and surface threat weapons. Built in the New Orleans area, she already survived hurricane Katrina. Her motto is "Never forget." PLEASE RESPECT,THANK,HONOR,SUPPORT & PRAY FOR OUR TROOPS,VETS,FIRST RESPONDERS and THEIR FAMILIES ;-) ww.ThekarpetKitten.com