Trio of Amphibious Ships To Honor Sept. 11 Heroes

Sea Power, Oct 2004

Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England has selected names for two San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships (LPDs), to be built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, to honor the victims, heroes and citizens who provided aid and support during and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

The seventh and eighth San Antonio-class LPDs will be named, respectively, USS Arlington (LPD 24) - commemorating the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon - and the USS Somerset (LPD 25) - for the county where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after a passenger revolt foiled an attempted attack on Washington, D.C.

The Sept. 9 naming ceremony was followed the next day by the keel-laying of the New York (LPD 21) - named for the city and state struck on Sept. 11 by two hijacked airliners - at the Northrop Grumman Ship Systems' Avondale shipyard in New Orleans.

Mary Jo Myers, wife of Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will act as sponsor of the Somerset.

In a related note, England last month selected USS Anchorage as the name for another San Antonio-class ship, LPD 23, in honor of the city of Anchorage, Alaska. Northrop Grumman was awarded a $107 million Naval Sea Systems Command contract on Aug. 17 for long-lead materials for building the Anchorage, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2009.