JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Twenty-four years ago, the United States of America was changed forever, with roughly 3,000 men, women, and children losing their lives to 9/11.
“It [was just] another day, getting ready to go to high school, not knowing, you know, just a regular teenager, not know what’s going to happen throughout high school,” U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Sunny Yeung reminisced. “And then as I took the bus home, the towers were not there no more.”
Thursday morning, Naval Station Mayport sailors, first responders, and more gathered to honor those lives lost - continuing to keep alive the memory of that day with a younger generation that may not remember or appreciate the solemn significance of 9/11.
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“Nowadays, the younger generation joins the military; they were born after 9/11,” explained U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Sunny Yeung. “So they don’t understand fully what happened during that day. So it is our responsibility to teach the younger generations.”
Now the hope is not just to remember and honor each and every single one of the names that lost their lives on 9/11, but to remind our country of a time when we are more united than ever in the wake of a tragedy that shook our nation.
“As an America, we came together like no other time since I’ve been alive. Today’s society, I think we lose track of that,” NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville CMC Jason Dupree said Thursday. “I think it takes, unfortunately, something as traumatic and as drastic as 9-eleven to cause us to come together. It is my wish, my hope that we don’t have to do that going forward.”
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