It’s been a decade since al-Qaida flew planes into the soaring World Trade Center and the seemingly impenetrable Pentagon. The passengers of the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 bravely fought back and thwarted hijackers’ plans to hit the U.S. Capitol. That plane ultimately crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pa. before it could hit its intended target.

After the initial shock at the wreckage and destruction, overwhelming anger and sadness set in. There were 2,977 Americans listed as killed—murdered—in the worst attacks this country has ever seen on its soil.

Since the attacks on 9/11, 6,236 more Americans have died trying to protect the rest of us. Their lives and their families, too, have been irrevocably changed. It’s more than most of us can begin to fathom.

Former Marine Corps Sgt. Drew Scott, 29, was 18 when he enlisted in September 2000. His parents were inordinately proud of their son’s decision to serve the nation, but worried the way any loving parents would worry. Their concern was slightly alleviated by the fact the U.S. was in peacetime. That changed just a year after Scott’s enlistment.

“I knew my original plan of joining the Marine Corps was about to be scrapped for this real service,” Scott said. “9/11 was gut wrenching and the drive to seek vengeance set in—I think of it as rattling a hornets’ nest.”

Scott quickly rose in the ranks, making it to sergeant. He was an 81mm mortar man and squad leader of Gun 8, First Battalion 4th Marines, First Marine Division.

He has been to both Afghanistan and Iraq. His deployment to Afghanistan, however, was a brief one, while his time in Iraq made him acutely aware of human cruelty and the grim realities of war.

After landing in Kuwait, Scott’s team unloaded gear and went into Camp Coyote, situated just 30 miles from Iraq’s capitol. The team continued to train and prepare for a short time until war broke out.

“We were mortar men,” Scott explained. “They called for fire. There were times we responded to fire from houses.”

Scott remembers seeing the images of the Gulf War on television as a child. To a third grader it looked like scenes from “Star Wars.”

He learned, however, that war is not like anything one sees on television. It’s a lot of different things.

“It was exhilarating and it was terrifying,” Scott said. “It was ugly and, at times, it was beautiful when you were helping others.”

One of the toughest parts of being in Iraq was the fear and stress of avoiding harming civilians. Collateral damage is inevitable, but always troubling when the “young and weak are involved,” Scott explained.

“We didn’t want to hurt the civilian population,” he said. “I didn’t want their life unless they wanted mine or ours.”

Iraqis cheered the ouster of Saddam Hussein whose oppressive Ba’ath regime oversaw grisly campaigns like the Halabja Massacre and Anfal Genocide, where thousands of Kurdish civilians and other ethnic minorities were brutally murdered with the use of chemical warfare, firing squads and aerial weapons.

“They kissed us and hugged us, brought us water and food and flowers,” Scott recalled. “They were happy and free, but as we should know freedom doesn’t come without great cost and sacrifice.”

Scott described losing fellow Marines as the most demoralizing experience a man can face on the battlefield.

“You become very religious and superstitious,” he explained. “To lose a brother that you would give your life for is devastating. It literally eats you inside when you have brothers-in-arms that are still there.”

Scott reenlisted in the Marines, he said, because he “couldn’t leave it willingly.” A training accident left him with a severe back injury and forced his resignation. Three surgeries later, Scott continues to deal with a lot of pain but he counts his blessings.

“No matter how hard you may think you have it, someone always has it worse,” he said.

Scott and his wife of seven years, Lauren, are the parents of an 8-month-old baby boy, James. Following his military career, Scott became a barber in Tomball, Texas where he took over his family business.

The profession works for him because it involves standing. He learned, early on, that sitting too long is extremely painful for him.

“It seems mild to me some days but it’s fairly significant,” Scott said about his injuries. “It’ s a part of life.”

Scott was a teenager when al-Qaida attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11 and sent overseas to fight U.S. wars. Most teenagers can hardly relate to the experiences of a veteran, who doesn’t just have opinions on U.S. foreign policy but lives it.

“9/11 erased innocence and peacefulness and violently brought the reality of human cruelty and savagery front-and-center to every American’s life,” Scott said, lamenting the fact so many children, 3,052 to be exact, grew up without a parent because of the attacks.

Scott believes that in some ways America is safer, but that we’re also starting to forget what we’re up against.

“We should not become complacent and we should always remember who chose—who continues to want to take our lives,” he said. “Because they will as soon as we let them.”

America, he argues, must identify the threat.

“Radical Islam was and continues to be the threat that drives training,” Scott said. “The mission is to defeat it and to ensure that the battlefield stays as far away from America as possible.”

 

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