“Can you imagine anything worse than what happened with those planes and towers?
I was an E5 Technician Mechanic on Camp Dodge then. I was actually at the FMS doing some wretch training and sitting in the break-room when the first plane hit the tower. We were mesmerized. It was a 15 minute break but we must have stayed for 45 min and watched the 2nd plane hit. It was a weird moment not knowing what was going to happen.
I deployed overseas three times after that.
And I remember after my first deployment I was taking this cardio kickboxing class and there was this lady whose son just joined the Marine Corps and was in Iraq. This lady was a hot mess. Everyday she was hanging on the reports of the Marines.
It was through her that I got to see from a mothers’ perspective what it's like when a child deploys. I remember saying to her, ‘I see my mom in you right now. I’m going to call my mom.’
And I never gave my mom a hard time after that. Whatever she says I take it with a grain of salt, but I’ll give her what she needs.”
- Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jimmy Richardson
"I met with a National Guard recruiter a day or so before September 11th, 2001. He came for some kind of self-defense class at City High in Iowa City. And I must have marked that I wanted more information, because I ended up sitting down with him in my guidance counselor's office.
At one point I was all ready to sign the paperwork. He was like, ‘Bro, all we do, we go to 600 Acres, we shoot guns, and go mudding. You want to do that?’ I was like, ‘Hell yeah!'
Then before the appointment was over I was like, ‘Wait, do you guys do that boot camp or like basic…whatever that is?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, yeah…’ and I was like, 'What about war, do you guys go to war and stuff?’
And I’ll never forget this. He looked at me and he said, ‘Bro, who in their right mind is going to mess with the United States?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, good point. Good point.’
So, I went home, told my parents I sat down with a recruiter, and I wanted them to sit down with him.
Then the next day was 9/11. My Mom was like, ‘Yeah that’s not happening. You’re not meeting again with the recruiter."
- Sgt. 1st Class Tyler Davin
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“I can honestly say, when the planes hit the towers, I hadn’t thought of the military side of it. Like, that we had been attacked and a military response was coming.
I was assigned to the air support unit for the Cedar Rapids Police Department when it happened. I had only been home for 20 mins, after an eight hour shift, when my old partner called me, ‘Are you watching the TV - turn it on.’ So I turn it on just in time to watch the first plane hit and I got another call, ‘Hey, grab your gear and come back in.’
I didn’t know what was going on. No one was talking about terrorism at that point. But at the PD they knew that something wasn’t right, so they started calling people in just to do extra patrols. They had me fly in circles around the nuclear power plant in Palo, Iowa, for six hours.
I mean, we were getting reports the whole time, but it was hard to wrap your mind around it. It wasn't until we landed, walked into the police station, and really got to see it that it became clear we were attacked.
So, since then I've deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Neither of those were about combat for me. Maybe Iraq was at first, because we were in a combat zone and didn’t have much interaction with everyday people. But in Afghanistan we did.
And I could care less about the combat. It was about the people.
Let’s try to build these people up. I’m here for the kids - for the future of their country.”
- Sgt. 1st Class Michael Warmenhoven
“I was a middle schooler in social studies class when it happened.
When the notification came I think the school district was debating letting school out and sending kids home. I was shocked and freaked out. Everybody thought the world was ending.
I remember the teachers looking concerned but trying to carry on so it wouldn’t effect us. They turned the TV on though and we watched whatever the news had rolling. We talked about it in class while it was happening. And that led us into talking about some of the other wars that happened.
And looking back I’m happy they did that, because I feel like, in school now, they try to keep the outside world away from you.
So, they sent us home early from school and we watched it on TV for days and that’s all anyone talked about. At that age I was probably annoyed my parents were watching the news all the time. 9/11 wasn’t really real to me then.
But a handful of years later I signed up for the guard and it became real to me - because we were at war.”
- Staff Sgt. Andrea Boose
"Almost every generation has a demarcation event that pushes the drive to serve. For myself and my girls, September 11th was our generation’s event.
On 9/11 I had three young daughters at home, and I'm up getting them ready for school and out the door. I’m drinking my coffee. Watching the news. All of a sudden you see the plane hit the tower and you’re thinking, ‘What the hell is going on now?’
My husband, at the time, had been in the military for ten years, but was in the National Guard. So, I call him, ‘Hey, are you paying attention to the news?Apparently there was a plane that was hijacked by a terrorist and it was flown into one of the the New York Trade Center Towers.’
My thinking was, ‘Is he going to get called up?’
I didn’t enlist until six years later. My girls were old enough then that they didn’t need me at the house. It was time to do something for me and take on a little bit of the family tradition.
My third great grandfather John Andrew Lunyou served in the Civil War with 47th United States, Colored Infantry. And since then my family has been represented in almost every major U.S. conflict.
And all three of my daughters have served. So, service - that sense of duty, loyalty, and honor - has been passed down. When 9/11 hit it increased that desire; that sense of patriotism and justice.
I think a lot of us that serve have less of a tolerance for injustice. At least I know I do."
- Sgt. 1st Class Lequitta Bickford
"We already knew we were heading to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia to do southern no-fly zone rotations in Iraq. These missions had been going on since the 1990’s.
At the time, the unit was an F-16 fighter wing. I’m with a small support unit and was headed there as documentation support; me and another guy from California. The mission was set for us to go in October.
Then 9/11 happened.
So, we still had this mission to Iraq. We go to McGuire Air Force Base first. And then we’re flying out of there on a rotator jet north at a low elevation over Manhattan.
I had never been to New York, so the first thing I saw was the metro area. Then the pilot calls out over the loud speaker that we're flying close to the World Trade Center Towers.
And that’s when people describe it as, it’s like, ‘You were in a movie.’ There was a dead silence on the plane. Everyone took turns looking out the windows to see these two perfect squares where the Trade Towers used to be. And you could see the towers were still just billowing smoke even though it was weeks later.
It was surreal. That’s where it really started to resonate. And my feeling at the time was, 'Lets get after it.' "
- Senior Master Sgt. Vincent Degroot
“You just saw and heard everyone shook up. You could see some people with anger. And you saw more people holding up the American flag.
I was in the 7th grade in the Bronx [New York]. It was weird because a lot of parents were coming to school getting their children. They were, like, ‘Oh I’m taking my son home.’ And I’m, like, ‘why are these parents looking a little frightened - a little shook up.’
My parents never got me. They were probably like, ‘You’re going to get your education!’
And we’re just kids, we don’t know much. But we’re like, ‘Dang, a plane hit a building?’ So I got home, turned on the TV, and channels that don’t even show the news had the news on it. And you see the 1st plane hit the first tower, you see the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower. I’m holding the remote - jaw dropped, in shock. I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, is this really happening?’ And then you start hearing the words that an act of terrorism happened.
My mom calls the house - ‘You home?’ and I was like, ‘Yes mom I’m fine,’ and everything. You could hear it in her voice that she was a little scared. Mom worked in Manhattan, but a distance from where it happened. My dad, he calls, said he’d be home. But he ran one of the largest train companies and they needed him to stay.
Word got around. The city was shook. But as bad as everything was, you saw more people start caring about somebody. I saw people like, ‘Hey, how’s your dad doing,’ and, ‘How’s this one doing?’
9/11 brought a lot of the city together.”
- Staff Sgt. Bayquon McDonald
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