1 00:00:02,202 --> 00:00:03,502 - (sigh) I'll never forget 2 00:00:05,350 --> 00:00:08,520 being at recruit training when 9/11 occurred. 3 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:12,340 We were all seated in a box inside that Thunder Dome. 4 00:00:12,340 --> 00:00:13,700 And that's when the chaplain came out 5 00:00:13,700 --> 00:00:17,010 and delivered to us the events of that day. 6 00:00:17,010 --> 00:00:22,010 The first thing he said, was, you know, recruits, 7 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:26,255 please understand this is going to affect most of you. 8 00:00:26,255 --> 00:00:28,838 (somber music) 9 00:00:31,850 --> 00:00:34,620 - I was a recruit at MCRD San Diego. 10 00:00:34,620 --> 00:00:38,600 Our drill instructor told us to circle it up around him, 11 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:39,730 and he took his cover off 12 00:00:39,730 --> 00:00:41,860 and started talking to us in his regular voice. 13 00:00:41,860 --> 00:00:45,300 - It was very ironic because we got to the Squaw Bay 14 00:00:45,300 --> 00:00:48,590 and everybody got on line, did what we typically do, 15 00:00:48,590 --> 00:00:50,610 and one of the drill instructors came out, 16 00:00:50,610 --> 00:00:52,880 calm, cool, collected, nothing that we'd seen like that 17 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,460 in the past two months of recruit training, 18 00:00:55,460 --> 00:00:59,240 said recruits, go ahead, pull out your foot lockers, 19 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:02,030 go ahead and take a seat, write letters home, 20 00:01:02,030 --> 00:01:04,500 and you can talk quietly amongst yourselves. 21 00:01:04,500 --> 00:01:06,320 - I remember looking around at the platoon 22 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:08,750 and everyone was kind of looking around at each other, 23 00:01:08,750 --> 00:01:11,940 trying to figure out what was about to come next. 24 00:01:11,940 --> 00:01:13,470 - And we all thought this was a test. 25 00:01:13,470 --> 00:01:15,350 We thought, you know, they're messing with us. 26 00:01:15,350 --> 00:01:16,670 Something's gonna come from this. 27 00:01:16,670 --> 00:01:18,920 - And he told us that the United States 28 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:22,010 was under attack on the east coast, 29 00:01:22,010 --> 00:01:24,560 and that we might wanna pay attention 30 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:25,840 to what we were learning here today 31 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:28,780 because we may need it again sometime in the near future. 32 00:01:28,780 --> 00:01:33,780 You could almost feel the breath taken out of the circle. 33 00:01:34,350 --> 00:01:37,040 We got no other information other than that. 34 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:40,090 Later on that evening our company commander brought us 35 00:01:40,090 --> 00:01:44,069 all in and showed us video clippings on VHS tapes. 36 00:01:44,069 --> 00:01:45,720 - [Reporter] We understand that a plane 37 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:47,370 has crashed into the World Trade Center. 38 00:01:47,370 --> 00:01:48,820 We don't know anything more than that. 39 00:01:48,820 --> 00:01:49,680 We don't know if it was a- 40 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:51,760 - As he was delivering what happened that day, 41 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,610 you could hear the sobs and some outright crying 42 00:01:54,610 --> 00:01:58,440 from some of the recruits, and 43 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:02,860 when he asked who here has those family members 44 00:02:02,860 --> 00:02:04,380 that might work in those areas, 45 00:02:04,380 --> 00:02:07,940 I was taken aback by how many recruits 46 00:02:07,940 --> 00:02:10,900 actually raised their hand, including my own. 47 00:02:10,900 --> 00:02:15,290 - Our path that we had initially joined 48 00:02:15,290 --> 00:02:16,760 was gonna be very different. 49 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:18,540 When I joined it was peacetime 50 00:02:18,540 --> 00:02:21,543 and then all of a sudden now we're in wartime. 51 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:26,540 - I'll never forget making that phone call to my mother, 52 00:02:26,540 --> 00:02:29,950 the fear in her voice knowing of what the eventuality 53 00:02:29,950 --> 00:02:33,020 was gonna be for me, being a United States Marine 54 00:02:33,020 --> 00:02:35,060 and now being at a time of war. 55 00:02:35,060 --> 00:02:36,560 That's, the shake in her voice 56 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:38,333 is something that I'll never forget. 57 00:02:40,530 --> 00:02:43,921 (somber music) 58 00:02:43,921 --> 00:02:46,700 One of the first things I did upon arrival back home 59 00:02:46,700 --> 00:02:49,400 was go to this little place that I liked to go as a kid. 60 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:51,720 It's called the Eagle Rock Reservation. 61 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:55,020 I'll never forget driving up there 62 00:02:55,020 --> 00:02:56,700 and walking out to the pavilion 63 00:02:56,700 --> 00:02:59,270 that oversees the New York City skyline, 64 00:02:59,270 --> 00:03:01,740 and you look to the north of the city and you see 65 00:03:01,740 --> 00:03:03,720 the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, 66 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:06,260 and you can make out the New Yorker, 67 00:03:06,260 --> 00:03:09,123 and then you look to the south and it's just barren. 68 00:03:10,110 --> 00:03:12,810 Just seeing the gravity of the situation that happened, 69 00:03:12,810 --> 00:03:15,110 that those two dominating towers 70 00:03:15,110 --> 00:03:17,070 with all those innocent lives that fell. 71 00:03:17,070 --> 00:03:20,720 It took me aback, and as the sun set behind me, 72 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:21,620 I remember looking at the city, 73 00:03:21,620 --> 00:03:23,040 and as those searchlights went on 74 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:25,570 and seemed to just light up the sky, 75 00:03:25,570 --> 00:03:30,159 it sold me that I would be in this for the duration. 76 00:03:30,159 --> 00:03:31,790 As long as the Marine Corps would have me, 77 00:03:31,790 --> 00:03:34,023 that I was in this until the end. 78 00:03:35,354 --> 00:03:37,937 (somber music)