Welcome home

We have had three of our local ships return over the past couple of days - the first was the USS New York - this is the ship that carries part of the metal from the Twins Towers in its walls. It arrived home on Sunday after a 14 month deployment. (Mom says Mayport is flooded with lots of very handsome sailors at the moment - BLAH - the only thing I care about is all that extra traffic in the morning which slows down my Bark Rangers Patrols :) Here is some information about the ships.
 

Name:	USS New York
Namesake:	The state of New York
Awarded:	25 November 2003
Builder:	Northrop Grumman Ship Systems
Laid down:	10 September 2004
Launched:	19 December 2007
Christened:	1 March 2008
Acquired:	21 August 2009
Commissioned:	7 November 2009
Homeport:	Naval Station Mayport, Florida
Motto:	"Strength forged through sacrifice. Never forget."

Capacity:	Embarked Landing Force: 699 (66 officers, 633 enlisted) surge capacity to 800.
Complement:	28 officers, 332 enlisted

The second ship is the USS Iro Jima which arrived home on Monday after a 12 month deployment - this is one BIG ship! It is a helicopter transport ship as well as troops.

Name:	USS Iwo Jima
Namesake:	Battle of Iwo Jima
Ordered:	28 February 1995
Builder:	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	12 December 1997
Launched:	4 February 2000
Christened:	25 March 2000
Commissioned:	30 June 2001
Homeport:	Naval Station Mayport, Florida
Motto:	Uncommon Valor

Class and type:	Wasp-class amphibious assault ship
Displacement:	40,530 long tons (41,180 t) full load
Length:	844 ft (257 m)
Beam:	110 ft (34 m)
Draft:	30 ft (9.1 m)
Propulsion:	Geared Steam Turbines
Speed:	22 knots (25 mph; 41 km/h)
Troops:	1,897 Marines
Complement:	73 Officers, 1009 Enlisted

The third ship to return home on Monday was the USS Fort McHenry which had been on deployment for the 8 months

Namesake:	Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland
Ordered:	11 December 1985
Builder:	Lockheed Shipbuilding
Laid down:	10 June 1983
Launched:	1 February 1986
Commissioned:	8 August 1987
Homeport:	Naval Station Mayport, Florida
Motto:	Domus Fortium - Home of the Brave

Length:              610 ft (190 m)
Beam:                84 ft (26 m)
Draft:                 21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:        4 Colt Industries, 16-cylinder diesel engines, 2 shafts, 33,000 shp (25 MW)
Speed:                20+ knots (37+ km/h)                      
Troops:              Marine detachment: 402 + 102 surge
Complement:     22 officers, 391 enlisted