thedrifter
05-24-08, 11:03 AM
Platoon of 400 Leathernecks jogs to Ground Zero, leaves a wreath
BY CAITLIN MILLAT
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Saturday, May 24th 2008, 4:00 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/05/24/alg_marines.jpg
Just a few of the 400 Marines, in town for Fleet Week, who jogged from Battery Park to Ground Zero to lay a wreath.
The Marines invaded lower Manhattan Friday - and jogging with them was a young Navy officer from Queens who was moved by the sight of his hometown to reenlist.
"I didn't know I was going to do it," said Petty Officer Sunny Yeung, 21, who re-upped at the Times Square recruiting station on Thursday. "I thought it would be awesome to do it here."
Yeung, who grew up in Flushing and recently returned from a tour in Iraq, spoke after he and 400 Marines jogged from Battery Park to Ground Zero.
Running in formation and dressed in Marine T-shirts and camouflage pants, they didn't break a sweat as they chanted, "Semper Fi" while startled New Yorkers applauded from the sidewalks.
"The city of New York is America's hometown," Marine Lt. Gen. Keith Stalder said after laying a wreath at the edge of The Pit in memory of the 9/11 victims. "We all have a special bond with this city."
For Yeung, the pilgrimage was a jog back into his own past. He said he was at Bayside High School when the twin towers were hit and it was that terror attack that led him to enlist the first time.
"I remember seeing the towers one day and the next they were just gone," he said. "I feel a responsibility to my city as a New Yorker."
Yeung said he signed up for the Navy in 2006, but wound up serving in Iraq as the bodyguard of a Marine chaplain.
The young Navy officer was not the only New Yorker who made the jog to Ground Zero.
"Coming down here makes it real," said Lt. Col. Tim Parker, 42, who was born in Queens, raised on Long Island, and has been a Marine for 23 years.
Parker said he was taking classes at the Naval War College when Al Qaeda knocked down New York's towers. He said it's fitting that on Memorial Day weekend the Marines also remember the civilians who died in the attacks - because they, too, were war victims.
"Coming back here makes us appreciate the liberties we fight for," he said.
Ellie
BY CAITLIN MILLAT
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Saturday, May 24th 2008, 4:00 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/05/24/alg_marines.jpg
Just a few of the 400 Marines, in town for Fleet Week, who jogged from Battery Park to Ground Zero to lay a wreath.
The Marines invaded lower Manhattan Friday - and jogging with them was a young Navy officer from Queens who was moved by the sight of his hometown to reenlist.
"I didn't know I was going to do it," said Petty Officer Sunny Yeung, 21, who re-upped at the Times Square recruiting station on Thursday. "I thought it would be awesome to do it here."
Yeung, who grew up in Flushing and recently returned from a tour in Iraq, spoke after he and 400 Marines jogged from Battery Park to Ground Zero.
Running in formation and dressed in Marine T-shirts and camouflage pants, they didn't break a sweat as they chanted, "Semper Fi" while startled New Yorkers applauded from the sidewalks.
"The city of New York is America's hometown," Marine Lt. Gen. Keith Stalder said after laying a wreath at the edge of The Pit in memory of the 9/11 victims. "We all have a special bond with this city."
For Yeung, the pilgrimage was a jog back into his own past. He said he was at Bayside High School when the twin towers were hit and it was that terror attack that led him to enlist the first time.
"I remember seeing the towers one day and the next they were just gone," he said. "I feel a responsibility to my city as a New Yorker."
Yeung said he signed up for the Navy in 2006, but wound up serving in Iraq as the bodyguard of a Marine chaplain.
The young Navy officer was not the only New Yorker who made the jog to Ground Zero.
"Coming down here makes it real," said Lt. Col. Tim Parker, 42, who was born in Queens, raised on Long Island, and has been a Marine for 23 years.
Parker said he was taking classes at the Naval War College when Al Qaeda knocked down New York's towers. He said it's fitting that on Memorial Day weekend the Marines also remember the civilians who died in the attacks - because they, too, were war victims.
"Coming back here makes us appreciate the liberties we fight for," he said.
Ellie