USS NEW YORK

How fitting for this Thanksgiving season:


Launched just months ago, the USS New York was built with 24 tons of steel alvaged from the World Trade Center

She is the fifth in a new class of warship - one that is specially designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists . USS New York will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat- ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite , LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003 , 'those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,' recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who watched the bow being cast "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and "the hair on my neck stood up. It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back.'

The ship's motto? 'Never Forget'

So as this holiday season arrives, forget all the commercial hype and hoopla for a momnent, and give thanks for our Marines and soldiers in harms way on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.