The USS New York
 

The USS New York is about 45 percent complete and should be ready for launching in mid-2007. Katrina disrupted construction when it pounded the Gulf Coast last summer, but the 684 foot vessel escaped serious damage and workers were back at the yard, near New Orleans, two weeks after the storm.

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

"It would be fitting if the first mission this ship would take on is to make sure that Bin Laden and his terrorist organization is taken out," said Glen Clement, a paint foreman. "He came through the back door and knocked our towers down and (New York) is coming right through the front door, and we want them to know that."

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA., to cast the ship’s bow section. When it

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was poured into the molds on September 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence" recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "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 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!