WEBVTT

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- I'm Captain Marcellus Simmons

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and my job title is 19TH
ESC Public Affairs Officer.

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I'm from Fairfield North Carolina.

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- My name is Master Sergeant
Kelsey T. Rasmussen.

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I am the Command Career
Counselor for 19TH ESC.

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- My name is Staff
Sergeant Michael Reinsch,

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I'm the Team 19 NCOIC of public affairs

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and I'm from San Antonio, Texas.

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- [Kelsey] On September
11th, I was a young sergeant.

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- [Micheal] I remember it just kind

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of being a little silent that day.

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- [Marcellus] And if you turn on the TV

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and then everyone in the class,
we watched the second plane

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hit the other tower.

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So on September 11th 2001,

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I was in high school US History class,

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so I always thought that was pretty ironic

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that I was actually in US History class

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and I remember one of
the gym teachers came in

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and he whispered something to my teacher,

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my US History teacher.

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She started crying right away
and then she turned on the TV

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and everyone in class,

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we watched the second
plane hit the other tower.

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- It was like any other
day going to high school.

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I remember it just kinda
being a little silent that day

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and walking inside my English class

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and everybody staring at the TV

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(ambient music)

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- I was listening to the radio

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and listening to the news
media talk about how the planes

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were crashing into the twin towers

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and then eventually when the towers fell.

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Actually at first I didn't
understand the significance

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of what had happened.
I knew that the history

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of our country would forever be different

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or forever be changed, but I
don't think I truly understood

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the significance. The United
States of America is unique in

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that way, you know it's
truly a melting pot.

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We come from so many different
cultures, ethnicities,

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nationalities, but in times of tragedy

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and times of great sorrow,
you see all the time

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the American people, they
band together so well

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and I saw that right after 9/11

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and I remember that even in high school.

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- They stood up and
said it doesn't matter.

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We're a part of something bigger,

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flying flags outside their home

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and seeing like all of
these people come together

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and be something bigger than themselves

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and say, "no more."

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- At that point it didn't
matter your background.

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Everyone was together and
responding to that incident

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- That was something that
I think I'll feel forever.

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- I actually have a daughter who's three

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and a son who's one.

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You know, when they come
of age I'll explain to them

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you know, September 11th, that is an event

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that completely changed the course

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of our nation's history.

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- I was really nervous because my daughter

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had just been born a couple
days before on September 3rd.

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As a young sergeant and a
young father we had three kids.

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I was really nervous that
we were gonna deploy soon

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and my unit did a couple of weeks later.

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We were deployed to Saudi
Arabia to start setting up.

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- Americans really aren't
used to being attacked

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on their own soil. It
was a huge blow to...

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Even to the American ego, but after that,

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the American people were
truly able to band together

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and say, "we are one, we're one people

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"and we're going to defend our country."

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And I'll be able to
explain to my children,

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that event completely changed
the course of American history

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(dramatic orchestral music)