In a 2021 poll from the Pew Research Center, more than 90% of those 30 and older said they remembered exactly where they were on September 11, 2001.
David Sumner cannot forget.
He was there.
A Class of 1986 Trigg County High School graduate — son of Jesse and Margaret Sumner — he reflected on that horrifically historic day Wednesday afternoon at the Trigg County Senior Citizens Center, alongside Steve Darnell and others with WoodmenLife Chapter 20.
In front of his podium — a picture of the USS George Washington in port at New York City, taken September 12, 2001. Smoke, and two unmistakably missing towers, looming in the background.
Serving active duty in the U.S. Navy, Sumner and 2,499 other crew members had left Norfolk, Virginia, September 1, 2001, for maneuvers and training on the eastern seaboard.
Ten days later, America, and the world, changed forever.
Scrambling for answers, Sumner said his captain made an all-call to the ship. No communications in, or out, as America’s military and civic leaders tried to sort through the chaos of four planes that had either been bound, or sought, targeted destinations.
Finally, the U.S.S. George Washington received orders for the Big Apple — alongside 80 aircraft and 2,500 more soldiers — for national defense in the harbor.
When Sumner left the ship and eventually retired in 2004, the only thing he said he wanted was that picture — so it could serve as a painful, but necessary, reminder.
Also, in the shadow of Tuesday’s highly-divisive debate between former U.S. President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris, Sumner offered forth a plea to the community and the country.
Sumner also told the News Edge that an undisclosed New York City fire department corps later delivered a ragged, recovered American flag to the U.S.S. George Washington — for safe keeping.
FULL AUDIO FROM DARNALL AND SUMNER:
