Aboard New York's namesake Navy ship in Manhattan

ABOARD THE NEW YORK

Make no mistake: This ship was built for war.

It can hold 800 fully armed Marines. Its flight deck launches and recovers attack helicopters, and its well deck holds two hovercraft that transport troops and materiel to shore.

Built partially of steel reclaimed from the fallen World Trade Center towers, the New York - LPD 21 - is designed for combat.

But despite its bow being born from the aftermath of a terrorist attack, crew members say the New York is not about revenge.

It's about turning bad into good, defeat into pride, victim into victor.

Shipbuilders in Avondale, La., fashioned the bow of the 684-foot amphibious transport dock out of 7-1/2 tons of steel from ground zero. The reclaimed steel starts around the waterline and extends upward about 14 feet, said Cmdr. Curtis Jones, the New York's skipper.

"It's a small percentage of the overall structure," Jones said. "But the bow-stem and keel - that's where the ship gets its strength. It literally leads us through the water."

The ship's crest depicts the twin towers, the ship's bow, and a phoenix, rising from the ashes. Beneath the image is a two-word motto that's both a declaration and an order: Never forget.

"We deal with tragedy by rising from it and pushing on," Jones said. "It's very powerful - awesome in the truest sense of the word - and very, very humbling."

Petty Officer 1st Class Thomas Grawl, who grew up in Brooklyn before moving to Florida as a teenager, lost a cousin in the World Trade Center attack.

"I serve on this ship in memory of him," Grawl said as the New York passed below the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Monday morning. "I pray that this ship brings as much healing to the city and the state of New York as it's brought to me."

For Grawl, the healing comes from "the positive legacy that it will leave behind from such a horrible day."

As a plankowner, or original member of the crew, Grawl's name will forever be part of the ship. He likes that symbolism, calling the assignment "the shining star on top of a very good career."

Like many other sailors on the New York, Grawl, an electronics technician, worked hard to get aboard. He started calling his detailer 18 months before his last assignment ended.

Petty Officer 2nd Class LaVar Johnson, from Yonkers, N.Y., was thinking about getting out of the Navy when a boss recommended staying in and trying to get orders to the New York.

"Just to be a part of this - this is history," Johnson said. "This is one of those 'wow' stories." He envisioned his 6 -year-old son - who will be on the pier when the ship is commissioned Saturday - telling grandchildren about his service on the ship.

Chief Petty Officer Hakim Bristow, a native of Harlem, was a seaman serving aboard the Norfolk-based Wasp when his beloved city came under attack.

He couldn't get in touch with his family for days and felt sure his brother - a messenger who regularly made stops at the World Trade Center - had perished in the attack.

By the time Bristow learned his family was OK, something in him had changed. "I felt different. I felt like Joe Navy," he said. "It made me want to get our freedom back."

He remembers wanting revenge at first - thinking we should "blow everybody up."

He was angry at the Arabic corner store owners he'd known since childhood, even though they were devastated by the attacks, too.

"I wasn't seeing the big picture," Bristow said.

A few years ago, Bristow heard about the chance to serve on the New York and decided he would become a plankowner.

He called his detailer five times in two months. "He kept telling me 'No, no, no,' " Bristow recalled.

A senior chief petty officer helped broker a deal for Bristow, who now refers to himself as "the No. 1 New Yorker on the ship" and insists you have to be from one of the five city boroughs to truly claim city roots.

When the ship paused at ground zero to render a 21-gun salute, Bristow couldn't contain his emotion.

His right hand held crisply in salute, tears rolled down his cheeks.

Even after the New York pulled into Pier 88 in midtown Manhattan, Bristow couldn't quite find the words to explain how he felt.

"Every time you hear about 9/11, you think negative," he said. "You think about funerals. Now, I feel we're actually giving back to [the families.] Right now, this isn't our ship. This is their ship."

The families of those who died that day - and the police and firefighters who responded to the attack - are invited to visit the New York today and Thursday.

The $1.5 billion warship will stay in New York for limited public visitation through Nov. 11, Veterans Day.

Then it will return to Norfolk, where it will blend in among dozens at the naval base.

Bristow, who lives in Hampton, won't be on the ship much longer: Now that he's a chief petty officer, the Navy is sending him to the Carr, a Norfolk-based frigate.

He's glad to have had a year aboard.

Two weeks ago, his wife gave birth to a boy, Bristow's third son. His bosses told him he could skip the journey to New York - but Bristow's wife knew better. She wouldn't hear of him missing the trip.

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com