USS Yorktown horn sounds to honor 9/11

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - On Sunday, 21 years after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum remembered the day by blasting the horn of the historic USS Yorktown.

The horn of USS Yorktown went off six times throughout the morning, at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m., 9:37 a.m., 9:59 a.m., 10:03 a.m. and 10:28 a.m., each time representing when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked, the crash of Flight 93 and when each tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.

“Unfortunately, people will start to forget the significance and how many things happened that morning to so many different places,” Chris Huff, Patriots Point Director of Marketing and Communications, says. “So the horn on the ship means a lot. That’s where you come in and out of port, you can hear this horn from 10 miles away. It’s probably the most significant thing that we can do to reach the most people in the Lowcountry.”

Patriots Point visitor Karen McGreevy lost her friend Steven, who was a New York City firefighter, during the attacks.

“He was one of the people that died in 9/11. It means a lot because he left a child behind,” McGreevy says.

The Fox family had the opportunity to blow one of the horns Sunday morning. The kids say that they really thought about the moment since it was such a special opportunity.

“We homeschooled and we’ve been trying to let them understand how much it impacted our entire country and how our country came together,” Stacey Fox says. “It kind of like brought in something that you never even get to see on a day-to-day basis on how close everyone can really be and help each other. We really wanted them to understand the significance of that, with everything that happened and all the sacrifices that ever made, is very important for anything.”

Huff says it was imported for Patriots Point to do something significant to mark the occasion.

“Anytime we have a chance to reflect back to honor heroes to remember something incredible in time that changed so many more paths, and just the American thinking, that’s the kind of things that we attach ourselves to, and want to make sure that we educate the community, and bring awareness to those,” Huff says.

Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum is currently open every day from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

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