Team Infidel
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New York Daily News
November 11, 2008
Navy taps 10 to serve on newest war vessel
By Patrice O'Shaughnessy
Today, Veterans Day, we will think of the women and men in uniform all over the world, protecting us, fighting two wars, going about their duty to the nation day to day, whether there is a new President or a falling stock market or a special holiday. Particularly after 9/11, the military brought new purpose to New Yorkers, spurring them to join, or reaffirming their decision to serve.
And, for a handful of sailors who hail from the city, there is a special thrill and meaning to serve aboard a new warship named for New York with a bow made with steel from the ruins of the World Trade Center.
The New York is nearing completion in a Louisiana shipyard, and its new crew will climb aboard next spring. The ship will be brought to New York Harbor next autumn to be commissioned.
I visited the shipyard last month and the new commander, Curt Jones, proudly told me so far he had about 10 crewmembers from the city. “Two from the Bronx,” he noted. One of them is Ursula Sheran, who grew up on Clay Ave. and graduated from John Adams High School.
“It’s an honor,” she said of being assigned to the ship. “When we get commissioned, we go to New York! There is a lot of pride.”
Sheran, 27, is also very proud to be the first in her family in the armed forces.
“I’m the first military child. It’s a great accomplishment for my family,” she said, in a phone interview from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., where crewmembers are in training.
“I couldn’t even do a pushup,” she said, laughing. “I was a prissy girl. Nobody in my family was ever in the Navy. There were so much tears when I graduated boot camp.”
She joined nine years ago to see the world, and she has seen much of it: Italy, Bahrain, France and Spain, to name a few nations she’s sailed to.
But whenever she gets leave, she comes home to the old neighborhood, to her family.
“I was there last weekend,” she said. “My son is there. I go there whenever I’m off to see him. He’s 7 years old. His name is Durron Baker.”
She spelled out the boy’s first name the military way, “D for Delta, U for Uniform, R for Romeo. . . .”
She said the New York symbolizes “the struggle after 9/11, but we’re still standing.”
One of her shipmates, Joquel Chapple, 29, is from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
“It means a lot to me to be a plank owner on this ship,” she said, using Navy lingo for being a member of the first crew. “I don’t know how to express the feeling of being there. . . . Every day I look back at what we’ve been through, and how we came together to overcome this,” Chapple said of 9/11.
Petty Officer Aaron Palacio, 24, was in the High School for Legal Studies in Brooklyn when the twin towers were attacked. He joined the Navy in 2002.
“I always wanted to be in the military, and 9/11 drove me to make a difference, to be a part of what’s going on,” Palacio said.
Lest people think sailors have a cushier role since the wars are taking place in the deserts of Iraq and mountains of Afghanistan, Palacio spent eight months on the ground in Afghanistan as part of a Navy program to augment the other branches of the service.
“There are 30,000 sailors in Afghanistan and Iraq, on the ground, wearing camouflage, supporting the Army and Marines,” said Commander Erich Schmidt, executive officer of the New York. alacio was looking for orders (a new assignment), and told his commander he was from the city.
“He said there was a new ship with steel from the World Trade Center, and I said, ‘This is something I want to be a part of.’ “Wow,” Palacio said last week. “I’m serving on the USS New York. “A lot of people are looking forward to this. We’ll be in the spotlight; we have to maintain a good image.”
Petty Officer Latoya Wilson, 27, remembers walking home to Brooklyn from her job as a home health care aide in upper Manhattan after the attack. “It was scary,” she said. When she was told of the new ship, she decided that was where she wanted to serve.
Lt. Commander Laura Bender, 49, the ship’s chaplain, boasts that her ancestors have been in New York since it was New Amsterdam.
“I’m really looking forward to the day when we sail the World Trade Center home to the people of New York,” Bender said.
They all spoke with such excitement in their voices. Their new ship will take them to hotspots all over the globe, to deliver Marines to battle.
We’ll think of the men and women in uniform on Veterans Day. Maybe we should stop and think of them more often.
November 11, 2008
Navy taps 10 to serve on newest war vessel
By Patrice O'Shaughnessy
Today, Veterans Day, we will think of the women and men in uniform all over the world, protecting us, fighting two wars, going about their duty to the nation day to day, whether there is a new President or a falling stock market or a special holiday. Particularly after 9/11, the military brought new purpose to New Yorkers, spurring them to join, or reaffirming their decision to serve.
And, for a handful of sailors who hail from the city, there is a special thrill and meaning to serve aboard a new warship named for New York with a bow made with steel from the ruins of the World Trade Center.
The New York is nearing completion in a Louisiana shipyard, and its new crew will climb aboard next spring. The ship will be brought to New York Harbor next autumn to be commissioned.
I visited the shipyard last month and the new commander, Curt Jones, proudly told me so far he had about 10 crewmembers from the city. “Two from the Bronx,” he noted. One of them is Ursula Sheran, who grew up on Clay Ave. and graduated from John Adams High School.
“It’s an honor,” she said of being assigned to the ship. “When we get commissioned, we go to New York! There is a lot of pride.”
Sheran, 27, is also very proud to be the first in her family in the armed forces.
“I’m the first military child. It’s a great accomplishment for my family,” she said, in a phone interview from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., where crewmembers are in training.
“I couldn’t even do a pushup,” she said, laughing. “I was a prissy girl. Nobody in my family was ever in the Navy. There were so much tears when I graduated boot camp.”
She joined nine years ago to see the world, and she has seen much of it: Italy, Bahrain, France and Spain, to name a few nations she’s sailed to.
But whenever she gets leave, she comes home to the old neighborhood, to her family.
“I was there last weekend,” she said. “My son is there. I go there whenever I’m off to see him. He’s 7 years old. His name is Durron Baker.”
She spelled out the boy’s first name the military way, “D for Delta, U for Uniform, R for Romeo. . . .”
She said the New York symbolizes “the struggle after 9/11, but we’re still standing.”
One of her shipmates, Joquel Chapple, 29, is from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
“It means a lot to me to be a plank owner on this ship,” she said, using Navy lingo for being a member of the first crew. “I don’t know how to express the feeling of being there. . . . Every day I look back at what we’ve been through, and how we came together to overcome this,” Chapple said of 9/11.
Petty Officer Aaron Palacio, 24, was in the High School for Legal Studies in Brooklyn when the twin towers were attacked. He joined the Navy in 2002.
“I always wanted to be in the military, and 9/11 drove me to make a difference, to be a part of what’s going on,” Palacio said.
Lest people think sailors have a cushier role since the wars are taking place in the deserts of Iraq and mountains of Afghanistan, Palacio spent eight months on the ground in Afghanistan as part of a Navy program to augment the other branches of the service.
“There are 30,000 sailors in Afghanistan and Iraq, on the ground, wearing camouflage, supporting the Army and Marines,” said Commander Erich Schmidt, executive officer of the New York. alacio was looking for orders (a new assignment), and told his commander he was from the city.
“He said there was a new ship with steel from the World Trade Center, and I said, ‘This is something I want to be a part of.’ “Wow,” Palacio said last week. “I’m serving on the USS New York. “A lot of people are looking forward to this. We’ll be in the spotlight; we have to maintain a good image.”
Petty Officer Latoya Wilson, 27, remembers walking home to Brooklyn from her job as a home health care aide in upper Manhattan after the attack. “It was scary,” she said. When she was told of the new ship, she decided that was where she wanted to serve.
Lt. Commander Laura Bender, 49, the ship’s chaplain, boasts that her ancestors have been in New York since it was New Amsterdam.
“I’m really looking forward to the day when we sail the World Trade Center home to the people of New York,” Bender said.
They all spoke with such excitement in their voices. Their new ship will take them to hotspots all over the globe, to deliver Marines to battle.
We’ll think of the men and women in uniform on Veterans Day. Maybe we should stop and think of them more often.