To commemorate Sept. 11, the keel of the second U.S. Coast Guard national security cutter being built here was declared authentic or “truly and fairly laid.”
“We existed before 9/11 and we will continue to be here long after today,” Coast Guard Rear Adm. Gary T. Blore, executive officer of the integrated deepwater system, said during a ceremony Monday. “We must change with the threat.”
Blore joined Philip Teel, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems president, and more than 100 Coast Guard officers, Northrop Grumman employees and military personnel as a ceremonial plate was welded for the new ship, named CGC Waesche.