Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Ship built with WTC steel sails for namesake city
My sentiments exactly , I only hope that this ship finds its way into battle with a full load of marines and their gear , to beat the crap out of those that would harm us !
From AP
AVONDALE, La. — A Navy assault ship built with tons of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center towers began its journey to New York on Tuesday, sailing down the Mississippi River in a pea-soup fog as watchers along the levee strained for a glimpse.
The USS New York, named to commemorate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, left the Northrop Grumman shipyard where it was built for the trip to its namesake city. The $1 billion ship will be formally commissioned in New York in early November.
The New York is 684 feet long and can carry up to 800 Marines. It has a flight deck that can handle helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
Four tugboats performed an intricate set of maneuvers to pull the warship from the dock at the New Orleans-area shipyard and turn it 180 degrees toward the waters of Gulf of Mexico. An armed Coast Guard speedboat and a helicopter flying overhead guarded the vessel. The ship will sail through the Gulf and around Florida before turning north and continuing to New York.....
Friday, May 8, 2009
Pirates fire at U.S. Navy ship off Somalia
Not letting them go !
MANAMA (Reuters) - Pirates have fired small arms weapons at a U.S. Navy supply ship off the coast of Eastern Somalia, the first attack of this kind since last year's surge in pirate attacks, the U.S. Navy said on Thursday.
The USNS Lewis and Clark was chased for about an hour on Wednesday morning by two pirates skiffs, but neither came closer than about one nautical mile to the U.S. vessel, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said in a statement.
The small arms fire fell well short of the U.S. ship which speeded up to evade the skiffs.
The USNS Lewis and Clark earlier served as a temporary detention facility for suspected pirates arrested at sea, but its operations are now limited to providing supplies to other U.S. ships operating in the area.
Somali pirates have increased their activities in recent weeks, defying the presence of international navies in the area.
There have been 97 attempted attacks on merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden in 2009, 27 of which have been successful, according to the U.S. Navy.
In the latest incident, Somali pirates on Thursday seized a small Dutch vessel with at least eight crew in the Gulf of Aden.

