USS New York sails into its namesake harbor

November 1, 2009 By BILL BLEYER  bill.ble...@newsday.com
USS New York (Oct. 16,

Photo credit: Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding / File | USS New York
(Oct. 16, 2009)

Aboard the USS New York, Lester Toledo of Miami, an electrician
serving on the Navy's newest vessel, was psyched.

"It's my first ship," he said. "And I've never been to New York."

And he knew he would soon be entering the Big Apple in unique style as
one of 359 crew members on this amphibious assault ship making its
debut in the Empire State for its commissioning next Saturday.

"It's just amazing," Toledo, 20, said. "It's going to be like I see in
the movies, with Times Square and everything. It's kind of
overwhelming."

Named in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the USS New
York is set to dock in its namesake state today.

The ship is to be greeted today by fire boats and other craft as it
enters the harbor, and will dock at Pier 88 next to the aircraft
carrier Intrepid for a week of festivities. The tentative schedule
calls for the ship to pass under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at 7:35
a.m. It will halt near the World Trade Center site at 8 a.m. and
render a 21-gun salute.

As the 684-foot, $1.2-billion ship cruised the Atlantic Ocean 5 miles
off the Rockaways Saturday, anticipation among the new crew ran high,
both from newcomers to the city and those from the metropolitan area.

The ship is full of memories of Sept. 11. Well known is that 7.5 tons
of World Trade Center steel has been melted into the bow. But the
chaplain, the Rev. Laura Bender of Lake Ronkonkoma, pointed out that
the religious symbols on the front of the ship's altar are also
fashioned from steel from the Twin Towers.

"It's wonderful being on this ship," said Bender, who is an 11th
generation New Yorker and one of about 10 Long Islanders aboard. "The
ship for me is a symbol of how life always comes from death and
strength comes from adversity. I really feel we are sailing the World
Trade Center home and there will be a lot of healing just by moving
past Ground Zero and saluting the site and receiving a salute back
from the fire department."
connections

The ship's boatswain, Fred Tiedemann of Woodside, a 26-year Navy
veteran who oversees the deck equipment, said he has served on a dozen
ships. But "this one is special. I'm from New York and I know some of
the people who went down in the towers. It's going to be pretty
special" returning that seven and a half tons of steel to Manhattan.
"It means a lot to the crew."

VIPs and Sept. 11 first responders were flown out to the ship by
Marine Chinook helicopters, including Ferg Foley, chief operating
officer for American Defense Systems, a Hicksville defense contractor.
On Sept. 11 he was the senior officer in Manhattan for the Army
National Guard and spent two weeks coordinating the response at Ground
Zero.

"It's amazing" to be onboard, Foley said, "just knowing that it has
some of that steel from Ground Zero and that it represents the
fighting spirit of the United States. You can sense the pride of the
servicemen and women working on the ship."

For Lt. Melissa Proud of Glen Cove, the supply officer, the New York
is her second ship in a decade in the Navy. She has been aboard for
more than a year. She said the New York and its sister ships are the
first to have "sit-up bunks" that give the crew enough space to sit up
in the beds that are stacked three deep.

The lower levels of the ship are largely occupied with a hangar bay
filled with two helicopters and two levels below where vehicles from a
tank to a Humvee are parked, along with two amphibious air-cushioned
troop carriers powered by a pair of giant propellers that are launched
from a floodable well deck.

On the wide bridge, more than a dozen personnel navigated with charts
and radar and other video screens, while one sailor steered with a
small black wheel and the captain, Cmdr. Curt Jones, watched from a
padded chair on the starboard side. In the center of the pilothouse
floor was the ship's emblem showing the Twin Towers and a phoenix
rising from the ashes.

http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/uss-new-york-sails-into-its-name...

"The Role of the Chinook

The story of airmobility is essentially one of men and machines. If
the Huey helicopter became the cornerstone of airmobility, then the
Chinook must be considered one of the principal building blocks.

Late in 1956 the Department of the Army announced plans to replace the
H-37 helicopter, which was powered by piston-driven engines, with a
new, turbine-powered aircraft. A design competition was held and, in
September 1958, a joint Army-Air Force source selection board
recommended that the Army procure the Boeing Vertol medium transport
helicopter. However, the necessary funds to proceed with full-scale
development were not available and the Army vacillated in its design
requirements. There were those in the Army who felt that this new
helicopter should be a light tactical transport aimed at the mission
of the old H-21's and H-34's and, consequently, sized for
approximately fifteen troops. Another faction believed that the new
transport should be much larger to serve as an artillery prime mover
and have minimum interior dimensions compatible with the Pershing
Missile system. This "sizing" problem was a critical decision.

The first Vertol prototype, called the YHC-1A, was tested by the Army
to derive engineering and operational data. Three aircraft were built
with a maximum troop capacity of twenty. This model eventually became
Vertol's commercial 107 and the Marine Sea Knight. However, the YHC-1A
was considered by most of the Army users to be too heavy for the
assault role and too light for the transport role. The decision was
made to procure a heavier transport helicopter and at the same time
upgrade the Huey as a tactical troop transport. This decision was to
determine the pattern of airmobile operations for the next decade. As
a consequence, the Army concept of air assault operations differed
from the Marines because, among many reasons, the very nature of the
equipment demanded different methods of employment.

The "sizing" of the Chinook was directly related to the growth of the
Huey and the Army's tacticians' insistance that initial air assaults
be built around the squad."

http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/Airmobility/airmobility-ch0...

Peter Skelton

"Fred J. McCall" <fjmcc...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:fua0f5tp1g2glug8cscdqa0829npr7eiuo@4ax.com...

"The lower levels of the ship are largely occupied with a hangar bay
filled with two helicopters and two levels below where vehicles from a
tank to a Humvee are parked, along with two amphibious air-cushioned
troop carriers powered by a pair of giant propellers that are launched
from a floodable well deck."

So the LCACs are powered by propellers, are they? And they're not
exactly "troop carriers", not for assaults they're not. And the vehicle
deck only has one tank and one HMMWV, or what?

I also wasn't aware that the hangar bay was considered to be a lower
level of that ship. Maybe it's just me but it seems to be fairly high
up. :-)

AHS

AHS