Living history

Retired Navy captain and Rockville Centre resident Christopher Boylan and his wife, Elizabeth, were among the invited guests aboard the USS New York for a formal shipboard commissioning on Nov. 7 that honored both those who perished on Sept. 11, 2001 as well as those who survived. The event was planned to forge an enduring alliance between the people of New York and the ship and her crew.

Boylan, a public affairs officer in the Navy and Naval Reserves who retired after nearly 27 years, worked for the past four with the commissioning committee for the vessel. He was also among those on the warship’s deck, flown out by helicopter the day before it sailed through New York Harbor, and watched as the ship received a gala welcome from fireboats and private vessels as it made its way up the Hudson River to Pier 88 (at 48th Street and 12th Avenue) next to the Intrepid, where it was "brought alive."

"Even right now, it still gives me chills," said Boylan, days after the commissioning. "As a New Yorker who lived through the World Trade Center experience, all those elements of my life came together at that one juncture. My Navy life, my civilian life and my New York roots all came together at that one moment.

"I've served on a number of Navy ships and attended a number of commissionings and none quite touched me as personally as this did," he said.

The bow of the USS New York is forged from seven and a half tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center's twin towers. The newest entry to the U.S. Navy's fleet of landing platform, dock amphibious assault ships, the USS New York is the first of three ships that will be named after the places where over 3,000 people lost their lives that day. It boasts state-of-the art design and technology, is said to be a swift and agile giant, and it supercedes four older classes of amphibious landing craft. The ship's motto is 'Strength forged through sacrifice. Never forget.'