Continuing Promise Marines, Sailors Run in Remembrance of 9/11

Photo By Sgt. Samuel Beyers | Service members and civilians deployed in support of Operation Continuing Promise 2010 participate in a 5K memorial run on the flight deck aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima off the coast of Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, Sept. 11, 2010. Service members and civilians are providing humanitarian assistance and subject-matter expert exchanges to Caribbean, Central, and South American countries.  

PUERTO SANTO TOMAS, GUATEMALA

09.11.2010

Story by Cpl. Alicia Leaders 

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, South

PUERTO SANTO TOMAS, Guatemala – As a day to remember 9/11, Marines and sailors of Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Continuing Promise 2010 ran 5 kilometers on the flight deck aboard the USS Iwo Jima, Sept. 11, 2010.

Navy personnel of the USS Iwo Jima hosted the run to pay tribute to the nearly 3,000 lives lost due to the terrorist attacks against America on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I took part in the run because 9/11 affected every American,” said Lance Cpl. David Miller with Company A, 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, Ground Combat Element of special-purpose MAGTF. “Everyone still cares about what happened that day, and they always will. We aren’t going to put it in the past as if it never happened.”

After the run was complete, Marines and sailors took a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., to honor the lives lost when the first plane hit the north World Trade Tower.

Marines and sailors embarked aboard the USS Iwo Jima are currently off the coast of Guatemala conducting humanitarian civic assistance, subject-matter expert exchanges and providing community relations to the Guatemalan people. Personnel are working with partner nations to provide medical, dental, veterinary and engineering assistance to eight nations in the Caribbean, Central and South America.

• Date Taken: 09.11.2010
• Date Posted: 09.14.2010 17:10
• Story ID: 56271
• Location: PUERTO SANTO TOMAS, GT