Three days after September 11th, I deployed on Operation Noble Eagle, the military's homeland defense mission. Shortly after that, I deployed on Operation Enduring Freedom the overseas war against terrorism for a little over a year. We opened our initial briefings with photos from the WTC. Needless to say, they motivated us to do our mission.

Initially, when we saluted each other at the beginning of the deployment, we would say, "Let's roll" in honor of the passengers of Flight 93. They were our heroes.