For the past two weeks, patriotic pride has swelled just by watching all of the great athletic performances by USA athletes in the Paris Olympics. The same kind of emotion, exuberance and sense of patriotism will be on display Saturday on both sides of the Hudson River and actually in the river itself as the sixth annual NYC Hudson River Navy SEAL Swim takes place. Longtime area basketball coach Ken Termini and former Pen Argyl athlete Jeff Gum will be among the more than 300 participants who will start at the Empty Sky Memorial in Liberty State Park in New Jersey and end at the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
They will start by swimming from Liberty State Park to the Statue of Liberty where they will do 100 honor pushups and 22 pullups in an effort to salute the nation’s freedoms and civil liberties. From the Statue of Liberty they swim to Ellis Island and after 100 more honor pushups and 22 pullups for the nation’s diversity and those who came to the U.S seeking a better life, they are back in the water and swim to Battery Park in Manhattan.
At that point, they grab America flags and run to the World Trade Center Memorial. To finish the event, they do 100 more pushups and 22 pull-ups to salute those who lost their lives on 9/11, in Extortion 17 tragedy in 2011 and all Americans who lost their lives in the line of duty. On Aug.
6, 2011, 30 American military servicemen and a U.S. military dog were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter – call sign Extortion 17– was s.