{"id":3613,"date":"2026-09-11T10:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/?p=3613"},"modified":"2026-09-11T11:21:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:21:49","slug":"9-11-25-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/2026\/09\/11\/9-11-25-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"9\/11: 25 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Editor\u2019s Note: All Opinion articles reflect the opinion of the writer only, not The Messenger or Johnson County Community College. <\/b>JCCC students interested in writing for The Messenger\u2019s Student Voices page can contact us at Mrobe136@jccc.edu.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As we mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, I am reminded of how many lives were affected by that horrific tragedy: every service<\/span> member who had to deploy as part of the Global War on Terrorism, the families that lost a loved one, the firefighters who lost their lives that day as well as the many veterans who have suffered not only physical injuries but also unseen psychological injuries. Everyone, in one way or another, has been touched by the events of that day. Even for people born after 9\/11, I would suspect that they know someone who was affected, a loved one who deployed, a brother or sister who is a firefighter or police officer, or a friend who is serving their country in some capacity. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My life changed that day. I was a Staff Sergeant in the Army, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, serving in the 82nd Airborne Division. It was just like any other morning in North Carolina. The sun was shining, and it was a hot, humid day. That idyllic day changed the moment we heard a plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. We were huddled around the 13-inch TV at the Charge of Quarters desk in the entrance of our barracks, watching the horror of the day unfold. We watched as the second plane struck the South Tower, forcing all of us to come to the realization we were at war. This was confirmed when President George W. Bush announced hours later that we were indeed at war. \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was involved in the Global War on Terrorism and was deployed during that stretch of time to both Afghanistan and Iraq. I spent a total of two years and two months in combat zones. I missed the birth of my first daughter and was home long enough to spend two days with my second daughter after her birth. Many veterans missed births, birthdays, holidays<\/span>,<\/span> and anniversaries. This aspect of the war on terror is not recognized enough. The toll that this time away took on families and loved ones. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, to mark this 25th anniversary, we should, as a nation, pause to reflect on all the sacrifices everyone has made since that day. Take a moment to reflect on the day’s impact by thanking a firefighter, a police officer, a veteran<\/span>,<\/span> or an active-duty service member for their service. And most of all, I hope it will never be forgotten.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, to mark this 25th anniversary, we should, as a nation, pause to reflect on all the sacrifices everyone has made since that day. Take a moment to reflect on the day’s impact by thanking a firefighter, a police officer, a veteran, or an active-duty service member for their service. And most of all, I hope it will never be forgotten.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[342],"class_list":["post-3613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-studentvoice"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Saul Epstein","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/sepstein\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2026\/09\/1342796622_6f1d70906c_w-300x225.jpg","coauthors":[{"link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/mike-kemper\/","display_name":"Mike Kemper"}],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>","Student Voice<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>","Student Voice<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 1 month ago","modified":"Updated 1 month ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on September 11, 2026","modified":"Updated on September 11, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on September 11, 2026 10:06 am","modified":"Updated on September 11, 2026 11:21 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":342,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"mike-kemper","display_name":"Mike Kemper","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2026\/09\/1342796622_6f1d70906c_w.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3613"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3616,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613\/revisions\/3616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3613"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}