The Arlington County Board on Monday formed a commission to act as a liaison between the county and the U.S. Navy during the construction of the USS Arlington, a ship named in honor of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
Arlington’s director of intergovernmental relations, Frank Shafroth, will serve as the Navy’s point of contact with the county during construction of the vessel.
“My job is to help facilitate communication with the county and the Navy,” Shafroth told The Examiner. The role of the commission “is to create both a short- and long-term relationship between the county, the ship and the [ship’s] crew.”
Other commission members include Rosemary Dillard, whose husband was killed in the attack; Arlington firefighter and paramedic Rodney White; and former Central Intelligence Agency Director Stansfield Turner.
The USS Arlington is expected to be commissioned in 2011. It is being built along with the USS Somerset, a shipbuilt to honor victims of a flight downed in rural Southwest Pennsylvania.
The USS New York, named for the victims of the World Trade Center attack, has already been commissioned.
