Courtesy of Bill Murphy Jr., Founder of Understandably and contributing editor, Inc.
“We were at war. I wanted to do my part.”
Stephen Kraft, who joined the army at age 28 after 9/11. (Kraft was one of several soldiers in this compilation who were quoted in a special report I worked on for Stars & Stripes on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.)
“I love ‘Joe.'”
U.S. Army captain, to me, explaining why he stayed in the army after several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan
“I can at least go out and defend my country and do something honorable as a father. Show my son something good.”
Joshua Hernandez, who joined after 9/11, and deployed to Iraq twice.
“I just wanted to do something to support those young people.”
Matthew Niblack, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran who joined the National Guard as a sergeant with an age wavier in his early 50s and deployed to Kuwait.
“This is all normal, routine stuff. Dude with the AK that I shot in the street? That’s routine. The dudes digging an IED? That’s an everyday occurrence.”
An Army lieutenant whose platoon I embedded with in Iraq in 2007
“I’d do it all again if I had the chance.”
Zachariah Chitwood, a veteran of the U.S. Army who was wounded in Iraq.
“I’d learned a lot in the Army. I knew that above all things in the world I had to become so big, so strong that people and their hatred could never touch me.”
Sammy Davis, Jr.
“Hooah!”
Pretty much the entire U.S. Army.
“They’ve got us surrounded again, the poor bastards.”
Gen. Creighton Abrams
“9/11 changed the entire direction of my life.”
Fred Wellman, who had served as a helicopter pilot in the Army and rejoined after September 11 to serve as a public affairs officer.
“It took me another 18 months to convince my wife to let me join the Army National Guard. We had two small children, so it was a very hard decision
for her.”
Joel Bottem, a veteran who rejoined after 9/11
“It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.”
Zell Miller
