USS New York (LPD-21)
USS New York (LPD-21) is a , and the fifth ship of the United States Navy named after the state of New York. Naming Shortly after September 11, 2001, Governor of New York George E. Pataki wrote a letter to Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England requesting that the Navy bestow the name New York on a surface warship involved in the Global War on Terrorism in honor of the victims of the September 11 attacks. Pataki wrote that he understood state names were reserved for submarines, but he asked for special consideration so the name could be given to a surface ship. The request was approved on 28 August 2002. Sister ships names announced On 9 September 2004 Gordon R. England, then the Deputy Secretary of Defense, announced that two of New York sister ships would be named and in commemoration of the places where two of the other planes used in the attacks came down: Arlington County, Virginia, and Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Construction A symbolic amount of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center after it was destroyed in the September 11 attacks was used in her construction. The ship is the first to be designed fully