U.S. sailors and Marines keep time with ship’s bells when they’re at sea.
That’s one reason why Aleq Boyle, who was a sailor on the USS Midway aircraft carrier in the early 1980s, thought Chattanooga churches should ring their bells today. Today marks the one-week anniversary of Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez’s shooting rampage that claimed the lives of one Navy sailor and four Marines, the branch of the service with the closest ties to the U.S. Navy.
“I just thought that was an appropriate way to remind the community of [the victims’] sacrifice,” said Boyle, a Chattanoogan who got several downtown churches to agree to ring their bells five times for the five fallen servicemen at five minutes after 4 p.m. today.
Boyle chose 4 p.m. because he said there are four branches in the U.S. military: Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
“The Coast Guard is under Homeland Security,” Boyle said. “In the time of war, it comes under command of the Navy.”