The U.S.S. New York has arrived in New York Harbor this morning. This ship has some World Trade Center steel incorporated into it's construction, and will serve as both a fighting ship, and as a memorial to our fallen. The commissioning ceremony (the process by which the Navy officially accepts the ship into it's ranks) will be held noon, this Saturday, at her berth near the U.S.S. Intrepid Museum.
I'm going. I wouldn't miss this for the world. Neither should you, for a few reasons.
This ship symbolizes far more than just American might. It is a monument to our dead, killed by a cowardly enemy that refuses to stand in the field and fight like men, but instead sneaks about like thieves in the night. It's a monument to the indomitable spirit of the United States -- not Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi's United States, the real United States. It was built with steel recovered from the ruins, by men and women who not only had a ship to build, but a city to rebuild.
Because, you see, the U.S.S. New York was built in a shipyard in Louisiana, New Orleans, to be exact, and was on the ways when Hurricane Katrina struck. The men and women who built this floating testimonial also had lives to rebuild. This ship is not only a memorial to the dead, but a memorial to the living who overcame hardships and put their noses to the grindstone, in what for many, seems to have been a labor of love.
She's a beauty, and she will serve this country well for the next 50 years. The enemies of all good and decent men should quake with fear when she shows up off their shores, because she means business. She means that the United States has come to supplant tyranny with freedom.
If you can, make an effort to go to that ceremony on Saturday.
Good Luck and Godspeed, LPD-21.
The Official U.S.S. New York Website.
Video of U.S.S. New York Sea Trials.
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