By BERNIE HORNICK
Construction of the USS Somerset – named as a tribute in the wake of 9/11 – has reached another milestone: The keel-authentication ceremony has been set for Dec. 11 in Avondale, La.
The amphibious transport vehicle is being built by general contractor Northrup Grumman Shipbuilding.
Company spokesman Bill Glenn said last week from Pascagoula, Miss., that the ceremony will formally mark that the keel, laid in September, “has been truly and fairly laid.”
“We’ll have some speakers,” he said.
“The final thing we’ll do is the sponsor – Mary Jo Myers – will have a keel plate and she will sort of sketch her initials in it and a welder will come in and trace it. That will be the big thing. Everyone will have their welding masks on. They make little commemorative keel plates.”
Myers is the wife of retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, who was the 15th
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Other milestones will be the launching of the vessel in fall 2011 to be followed by the christening at a date to be determined, delivery to the Navy at the end of 2012 and the commissioning in 2013.
Construction began in May 2008.
The ship’s bow stem, the part that cuts through the water, contains steel from the bucket of a dragline excavator at the abandoned strip mine near Shanksville where Flight 93 crashed.
The craft is one of a series of San Antonio-class transports dedicated to the memory of Sept. 11, 2011 – including the USS New York, which is in service, and the USS Arlington, which is farther along than the Somerset in the construction process in Pascagoula.
The main purpose of the ship will be to transport and land Marines. It also can carry helicopters, land vehicles and weaponry.
The masts of the San Antonio ships are octagon-shaped. That stealth feature allows the boats to better avoid radar detection.
“To build these ships in honor of these heroes from that day, the workers feel that every day,” Glenn said.
“They understand how special these ships are to our company and our nation.”
