September 2010 - Onofrio Construction

september Dates to remember
Last year’s September issue of the LGN was devoted to two important dates which we felt warranted
repeating and have added a special story about the USS New York. The first has been a holiday since 1894.
The second date is one that should be etched in the minds of all Americans, never to be forgotten. In both
cases we should fly our national flag to show we are a Nation of many nationalities and cultures, but we
stand tall and proud as One Unified Nation.
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal
holiday observed on the first Monday in
September (on September 6 this year).
The holiday originated in 1882 as the
Central Labor Union of New York City
sought to create “a day off for the working citizens.” Con-gress made Labor Day
a federal holiday on June 28, 1894 and all
50 U.S. state have made Labor Day a state
holiday.
Today, Labor Day is often regarded as a day of rest and
parades. Forms of celebration include picnics, barbecues,
fireworks displays, water sports, and public art events.
Families take it as the last chance to travel before the
end of summer. Labor Day also marks
the beginning of the NFL and college
football seasons. The NCAA usually
plays their first games the week before
Labor Day, with the NFL traditionally
playing their first game the Thursday
following Labor Day.
These may be difficult times for many
families and they may have chosen to
stay home or close to home. Here is
a link to the Official North Carolina Travel and Tourism
Website where you can plan mini vacations and excursions for 1, 2 or 3 days at a time. http://www.visitnc.
com/.
september 11 or 9/11
The September 11 attacks (often referred to as September
11th or 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks
by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11,
2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked
four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers
intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin
Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City,
killing everyone on board and many others working in
the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours,
destroying nearby buildings and damaging oth-ers. The
hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Penta-gon in
Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C.
The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanks-ville in
rural Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight
crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the
hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There
were no survivors from any of the flights.
There were a total of 2,993 deaths, including the 19
hijackers: 246 on the four planes (from which there were
no survivors), 2,603 in New York City in the towers and
on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. An additional
24 people remain listed as missing. All of the deaths in
the attacks were civilians except for 55 military personnel
killed at the Pentagon. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Center. In 2007,
the New York City medical examiner’s office added Felicia
Dunn-Jones to the official death toll from the September
11 attacks. Dunn-Jones died five months after 9/11 from a
lung condition which was linked to exposure to dust during the collapse of the World Trade Center.
The United States responded to the attacks by launching
a “War on Terrorism”; invading Afghanistan to depose the
Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaeda terrorists; and invading Iraq to dispose of Saddam Hussein and Iraq’s supposed
stock of weapons of mass destruction. However, with the
exception of chemical weapon traces left over from the
Iran-Iraq War, no such weapons have been found. The US
also enacted the USA PATRIOT Act, while many other
countries strengthened their anti-terrorism leg-islation
and expanded law enforcement pow-ers. Some American
stock exchanges stayed closed for the rest of the week
following the attack, and posted enormous losses upon
reopening, especially in the airline and insur-ance industries. The destruction of billions of dollars worth of office
space caused serious
damage to the economy of Lower Manhattan.
The damage to the
Pentagon was cleared
and repaired within a
year, and the Pentagon
Memorial was built on
the site. The rebuilding process has started
on the World Trade
Center site. In 2006 a
new office tower was
com-pleted on the
site of 7 World Trade
Center. The 1 World
Trade Center is currently under construction at the site and at
1,776 ft (541 m) upon
completion in 2011,
will be-come one of
the tallest buildings in North America. Three more towers
were originally expected to be built between 2007 and
2012 on the site.
The USS NEW YORK
The USS NEW YORK (LPD 21), built with 7.5 tons of
steel from the World Trade Center in her bow, was commissioned in New York City on Nov. 7, 2009. At approximately 8:00 a.m., on November 2, the USS NEW YORK
came to a standstill across from the World Trade Center
site, dipped her flag, and delivered a 21-gun salute. Members of the Fire Department of New York, the New York
Police Department, Port Authority Police, members of
the families of 9/11 victims and veterans gathered on the
shore at the North Cove in the World Financial Center to
return the salute. Members of the general public were in
attendance.
The keel was laid for the USS New York on September
10, 2004. Oddly enough, a previous holder of the name,
USS New York (BB-34), had its keel laid on September
11, 1911, exactly 90 years to the day before the WTC was
attacked.
According to Navy sources, the USS New York is the
fifth in a new class of amphibious assault vessels, the San
Antonio Class, “designed to support embarking, transporting, and landing elements of a Marine landing force in an
assault by helicopters, landing craft, amphibious vehicles,
and by a combination of these methods to conduct primary amphibious warfare missions.”
“This new class of ships will project American power
to the far corners of the Earth and support the cause of
freedom well into the 21st century,” said Secretary of the
Navy Gordon England when the project was announced
in 2002. “From the war for independence through the war
on terrorism, which we wage today, the courage and heroism of the people of New York has been an inspiration.
USS New York will play an important role in our Navy’s
future and will be a fitting tribute to the people of the
Empire State.”
The ship, half built at the time, also has the distinction
of surviving the destructive force of Hurricane Katrina,
which slowed construction and left hundreds of shipyard
workers homeless in August 2005. Many of the workers
took up temporary residence at the shipyard so they could
continue with the project.