Tattoo, tattoo, lights out in five minutes, standby for the evening prayer…

The Stars and Stripes discusses the Navy tradition of evening shipwide prayers as it relates to the USS New York, a ship forged from the steel of the World Trade Center:

Each night at precisely 9:55, the chaplain on the USS New York delivers the evening prayer from the bridge over the ship’s public address system.

It’s a long-standing tradition aboard every U.S. Navy warship at sea. The chaplain reviews the day’s events and talks about what may come in the days ahead, while giving thanks and praying for things specific to the crew.

However, aboard the New York, the ship’s chaplain, Lt. Justin Bernard, is forging a new tradition specific to the ship’s namesake. Toward the end of the nightly prayer he also remembers a firefighter who died when terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

As an aside, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been trying to stop nightly prayers in the US Navy for years. For the time being, the FFRF has been stymied by hundreds of years of naval tradition — something that transcends many otherwise insurmountable barriers.

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