U.S. Navy Christens 3rd Ship Honoring 9/11 Sites

Huntington Ingalls Avondale Yard to Close Following Ship's Delivery

The USS Somerset, the last of three ships named for 9/11 attack sites, was christened Saturday in honor of the passengers and crew of the plane that crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania on 9/11.

Passengers onboard United Airlines Flight 93 stormed the cockpit, thwarting a planned attack on Washington where the House and Senate were in session that morning. The plane instead crashed in a remote field near Shanksville in Somerset County Pennsylvania killing all 44 people onboard including the 4 hijackers. No one on the ground was injured.

The USS Somerset was named in honor of the 40 heroic men and women onboard flight 93. On Saturday nearly two dozen friends and family of the passengers gathered at Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Avondale to take part in the ship’s christening ceremony.

The Somerset is the 3rd ship to be named in honor of the 9/11 sites and the more than 3,000 Americans who lost their lives. The other two vessels are the USS New York and the USS Arlington. The vessel includes 7.5 tons of melted down steel from a coal mining crane that stood near the crash site.

Mary Jo Myers, wife of retired Air Force General Richard B. Myers and the 15th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had the honor of smashing a bottle of sparkling wine against the breaker bar mounted on the hull. Navy Rear Admiral David Lewis told the crowd that gathered that the passengers that day found themselves on the front line of a new kind of war and became the first to engage a successful counterattack. 

The USS Somerset, an amphibious landing dock, will be used for both military and humanitarian aid. The vessel is 25,000 tons, 684-feet long, 105-feet wide and can carry up to 800 troops. The Somerset marks the last Navy ship to be built at the Avondale yard, which is scheduled to close once the ship is delivered.