Petty Officer 3rd Class Danielle Good of Coal City was slightly more than 3 years old at the time of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Good, who joined the Navy five years ago, now serves on a Navy ship where 7 tons of steel from the World Trade Center was used in its construction, according to a news release from the Navy.
The release said that the Navy’s USS New York and other 9/11 namesake ships “uphold the virtues of service, sacrifice and selflessness that have always been the source of America’s strength.”
Good said in the release that serving on such a ship is a privilege and that she is “both humbled and honored to be a part of the special bond that this ship and her crew shares with her namesake.”
“I joined to set a good example for my son, and being a hospital corpsman, is honoring my fellow brother and sister corpsmen who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Good, a 2016 graduate from Coal City High School said in the release and then later added, ““Coal is a sports town and growing up there has helped me work with different personalities. This trait has strengthened my leadership skills within the military.”
The USS New York is 684 feet long (more than two football fields), 105 feet wide and weighs more than 24,000 tons. The ship can also move through the water at more than 26 miles per hour, thanks to its four diesel engines.
For more information about the Navy’s commemoration of 9/11, visit history.navy.mil.