USS New York departs for commissioning

NORFOLK, Va. - The USS New York departed Naval Station Norfolk Thursday, bound for New York City where it will be commissioned into service on November 7th.

The New York will first stop at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to pick up members of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and their equipment before heading back north.

The San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship is built with 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in her bow.

The New York arrived in Norfolk, its eventual homeport, on October 22nd.

The USS New York (LPD-21), named to commemorate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 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.

The New York revives a name held by at least four other Navy ships, including a Spanish-American War-era cruiser, a battleship that served in World Wars I and II and a nuclear submarine retired from the fleet in 1997.

LPD-21 is the fifth San Antonio-class ship built. The first four in the series - the USS San Antonio, USS New Orleans, USS Mesa Verde and USS Green Bay - are in service. Four other ships in the class are under construction: Somerset and Anchorage at the Northrop Grumman shipyard in Avondale, Lousiana, and Arlington and San Diego at Northrop Grumman's yard in Pascagoula, Mississippi.  The New York was built in the Avondale yard.

Arlington and Somerset also carry names connected to the Sept. 11 attacks: Arlington for the attack on the Pentagon and Somerset for the Pennsylvania county in which United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after being hijacked.

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