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Military

Navy To Christen Ship In Honor Of Flight 93

USS Somerset
U.S. Navy
USS Somerset

The Navy on Saturday will christen the USS Somerset in honor of the crew and passengers on United Airlines Flight 93. Their plane crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001, after the flight was hijacked by terrorists. According to the Flight 93 National Memorial web page, the actions of the 40 passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 helped thwart the terrorists' planned attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The Navy reports:

During the weeks following the Flight 93 crash, recovery personnel retrieved more than 95 percent of the airplane's wreckage from the crash site. An American flag was hoisted on the top of a power shovel or "dragline" on a hill dominating the area. The dragline had been used in coal stripping at one time, and the equipment with the flag became a symbol of the effort.

In the summer of 2008, steel from the dragline's bucket was melted down and cast into Somerset's bow stem.
The USS Somerset will be the Navy's newest amphibious transport dock ship. It will also be the third Navy ship named in honor of 9/11, with the USS New York and USS Arlington being the other two.

The christening will take place at 10 a.m. CST at the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Avondale, Louisiana. You can watch it live online at http://www.vistasat.com/HIIWebcast.html.