FLEACT, Yokosuka chief-selects remember 9/11

Photo By Paul Long | Chief Hospital Corpsman (select ) Kenneth Gracie and Chief Fire Controlman (select) Harold Singleton prepare to lay the memorial wreath during the Fleet Activities, Yokosuka's 9/11 Memorial Service, held inside the Chief Petty Officer's Club, Sept. 11. More than 3,000 people died 12 years ago during the deadly terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon, including one flight that crashed in rural Pennsylvania. (Photo by Paul Long, FLEACT Yokosuka Public Affairs).  

YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JAPAN

09.11.2013

Story by Paul Long 

Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka

YOKOSUKA, Japan - Chief-select petty officers representing several commands onboard Fleet Activities Yokosuka held a 9/11 memorial service inside the Chief Petty Officer’s Club, Sept. 11.

“We will never forget, that’s what we said when it happened,” said Capt. David Glenister, FLEACT, Yokosuka’s commanding officer, during his opening remarks. “We’re having this ceremony because we can forget, because things like this are so traumatic, that in order to survive psychologically, emotionally we will forget. We’re here to remember the events of the day.”

Capt. Michael Carambas, commanding officer of Fleet Coordinating Group, and Director, Naval Amphibious Liaison Element, U.S. Seventh Fleet, was stationed aboard the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) deployed to the North Arabian Gulf when the 9/11 attacks happened, was the keynote speaker during the memorial service.

“I was actually airborne that day, trying to get one of my 500 arrested landings aboard an aircraft carrier,” Carambas said.

Carambas also said that when he asked for confirmation of the recall order, he was told that in fact it was a flight recall and upon landing on the Vinson, he was to turn on CNN and that he’s understand why. He got back to maintenance control just in time to see video of the second tower fall.

“It was eerily quiet,” Carambas said. “Everywhere you looked you could see distraught sailors."

Carambas said upon finishing the post flight paper work, he spoke to his crew and told them to take a moment of silence and reflect upon what they just seen.

“You need to remain focused on the job that you’re doing aboard the ship,” he said. “Whether it’s fixing a plane or doing paperwork, stay focused on the job that you’re doing, because at some point, we need to be ready to support some future mission.”

That future mission turned out to be the first sorties flown into Afghanistan to what became known as Operation Enduring Freedom.

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, at 8:46 a.m., the shot heard around the world was a plane crashing into the north tower of New York City’s World Trade Center. It was American Airlines Flight 11, from Boston bound for Los Angeles. Flight 11 had a full load of fuel and 92 people on board. For 18 minutes, this first plane crash was thought to be an unfortunate accident. At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175, another Boston- LA trip with 65 passengers, smashed into the south tower at the World Trade Center as many of the major U.S. television networks broadcast reports of the first crash.

The nation watched in horror as the images were aired from every possible angle. Forty minutes later, American Airlines Flight 77, collided with the Pentagon. A fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93, never made it to its intended target. A small group of male passengers learned via cell phones what was going on around the country and made it their business to see that more innocent lives wouldn’t be taken.

Several male members of the crew, one of them later to be identified as Todd Beamer, whose “Let’s roll” battle cry could be heard over an open phone line, mounted an attack on the plane’s hijackers. This Newark, N.J. to San Francisco flight, with 38 passengers on board, turned around above Cleveland and crashed in Somerset County, Pa.

It was a new date of infamy. More than 3,000 people lost their lives in these terrorist attacks. The world had again been changed. America was now, once again, at war. This new war is known as the global war on terrorism.

Public Law 107-89, a Congressional joint resolution, signed by President Bush on Dec. 18, 2001, designates Sept. 11 of each year as Patriot Day. In the resolution, President Bush calls upon all Americans to “observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. to honor the innocent victims who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks…”

Flags are to be half-masted at all units of the government and the resolution further directs that the people of the United States will remember this day with the appropriate ceremonies and vigils.

• Date Taken: 09.11.2013
• Date Posted: 09.25.2013 03:16
• Story ID: 114222
• Location: YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JP