{"id":1103,"date":"2010-04-21T16:21:41","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T16:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hub-dev.bates.edu\/magazine\/?page_id=1103"},"modified":"2017-09-06T11:38:52","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T15:38:52","slug":"john-j-cummings-89","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/back-issues\/y2006\/fall06\/features\/why-911-stories-matter\/john-j-cummings-89\/","title":{"rendered":"John J. Cummings '89"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, naval aviator J.J. Cummings \u201989 and his family were a week away from a regularly scheduled deployment aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.<\/p>\n

For this Navy family \u2014 J.J., wife Sara Hagan Cummings \u201989, and two daughters \u2014 the hectic week before deployment tends to be \u201ca flail.\u201d And, adds Sara, \u201cthere\u2019s typically a last-minute run to BJ\u2019s for a 20-pack of Irish Spring and Mennen Speed Stick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in 2001, happy excitement was in the air too, as older daughter Mackenzie was turning 4 in a couple days. But everything about the deployment turned irregular that morning.<\/p>\n

\"\"

"I love our country and I love my job, but it's the support of my family that lets me serve," says J.J. Cummings '89. with wife Sara Hagan Cummings '89, older daughter MacKenzie, younger daughter Delaney, and infant son James.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI was watching the Today show, and I saw the fire on the first tower,\u201d J.J. remembers. \u201cThen I watched the second plane fly in. I knew it was an attack.\u201d
\nFive years later, J.J. Cummings easily recalls the dominant emotion of that moment. \u201cAnger. I wanted to leave on deployment that day, knowing full well that I was going to go and make someone pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deployment went as scheduled, but instead of the Mediterranean Sea, the Theodore Roosevelt and Cummings\u2019 squadron, the Diamondbacks, sailed directly to the northern Arabian Sea. \u201cIt was surreal,\u201d Cummings says, the feeling that \u201cthis is it: 10 years of waiting for this moment. We knew we were going to go and drop bombs and take care of business. The purpose was very clear: Go and kill the people that attacked our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

From October 2001 to April 2002, Lt. Cmdr. Cummings, nicknamed \u201cYank,\u201d flew his F-14 in combat missions over Afghanistan, attacking suspected Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds. \u201cNever having dropped a live bomb in combat, to do that extensively for five months was an unbelievable experience,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Cummings knew two people on United Flight 175, Peter Goodrich \u201989 and a former Navy squadron mate, Brian \u201cMoose\u201d Sweeney. \u201cThe first bomb I dropped, on Mazar-e Sharif, had Peter Goodrich\u2019s name on it,\u201d Cummings says. \u201cThe second, over Bagram Air Base, had Moose Sweeney\u2019s name on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing names on bombs \u201cwasn\u2019t about revenge or motivation \u2014 I had plenty of that,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt was about doing something personal in response to their deaths, to their murder. I wanted the families to know that someone halfway across the world, over the very place where these attacks originated, was thinking of them and their great loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently a NATO staff officer, Cummings will return to flying, this time an F-18F Super Hornet, as executive officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 11, the Red Rippers, in 2007. He wants to be back in the thick of things even if that means leaving a son behind \u2014 James Roger was born March 14, 2006 \u2014 in addition to Sara and the girls.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur purpose was defined for us,\u201d he says. \u201cI love what I do. It\u2019s challenging, rewarding, and serves a greater cause. That\u2019s the bottom line, the cause \u2014 the American way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, naval aviator J.J. Cummings \u201989…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"parent":1098,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_dimp_site_id":"","_dimp_override_contact":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"class_list":["post-1103","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11425,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1103\/revisions\/11425"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}