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SFC David Battaly
Active Duty, Army Reserve
Civil Affairs
Served in Iraq

“On September 11, 2001 I was a school teacher in Memphis, Tennessee. I had been teaching in Memphis for over ten years. Popular among the students, I would often share my experiences of my eight year military service in the Army that ended in 1992.

During an early break between classes on 9-11-01, a fellow teacher came to my classroom knowing I had a television in the music room. With eyes wide open, she said we needed to turn the television on. In awe, we saw a morning news program showing images of the World Trade Center in flames. Within a few short moments the students and I watched as another plane struck the other WTC building and another slammed into the Pentagon. We knew our nation was under attack.

I learned that evening from our family living just outside of New York City that my cousin Robbie who worked downtown was missing. In shock and covered in WTC dust, Robbie found his way home.

My family also steeped in as firefighters and law enforcement officers. Many in New York.

A close friend of our family, FDNY Firefighter Richard Allen was killed as the WTC towers collapsed.
I don’t know if it was patriotism or flat out anger that urged me to volunteer and reenlist in the Army Reserves.

By 1 October, 2001 I was assigned to the 431st Civil Affairs Battalion in Little Rock, Arkansas. Over the next year I trained as a Civil Affairs Team Sergeant. In March of 2003, attached to the 187 Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles” Division, I participated in the assault on fortress Iraq. Stenciled on the side of my HMMWV was the FDNY Maltese Cross – “NOT FORGOTTEN”.

Ten years later, I continue to serve as an Army Reserve soldier on Active Duty (AGR).
I keep in touch with my former students, several are serving in the Army and share their experiences with me. We now have something greater in common… “PROUD TO SERVE”


Spc. Matthew Koelzer
Active Duty, Army
92F
Served in Iraq

“It was about 8:30am and I was in home room class in middle school. We were going over our homework when the teacher from across the hall came into the class and spoke to our teacher. After the other teacher left the room, my teacher went over the the television and turned it on. Just as he turned it to the news the second plane had hit the towers. My first reaction was thinking something went wrong. Then we hear about the plane in Pentagon and the field in Pennslyvania. From that moment I knew that America was going to war with someone because we were under attack.

Although I was too young to enlist right away, I enlisted when I turned 17. I grew up in a military family so my family knew I was doing it on my own account. My first tour to Iraq I seen what we were doing and knew that we were writing history. I have seen a nation come together and pull through very tough times, and rebuild itself. Being deployed you see one nation pull together to get the mission complete.

This is my second tour to Iraq and I have seen people from all across the globe and different races come together, just like 9-11. There is nowhere else I would prefer to be, in the military I am happy serving my nation.”

Our Memory


SFC Jose Moraga
Active Duty, Army
92Y
Served in Iraq

“11 September 1992, the day I joined the Army out of Chicago, IL.
11 September 2001, I was a Sergeant assigned to Task Force Centurion 1-34 Armor, 1st Infantry Division, Operation Desert Spring in the Northern Kuwait desert when the attacks happened in the United States.
I recall the sirens going off in the “Kabal” right after lunch. These were not the sirens we normally heard that we would use to practice our reaction to an attack. These were the real sirens. Little was known that moment what was happening back home. I vividly remember hundreds of soldiers running across the desert from the MWR to their tents to don their gear. I remember running so fast that i twisted my ankle on a rock. I donned my gear and reported back to my Command Post and awaited word. No one really knew what was going on for the first few hours, this of course back in 2001 was an austere base in the desert.

As word trickled down about what was going on, i felt sick to my stomach. We were the most forward deployed Army force at the time, conducting training with the Kuwaiti military, yet felt so hopeless being so far from home. There was a mixture of emotions that day. We all felt like we were kicked, felt helpless, felt fear, felt very uncomfortable. The command did a great job to talk to us and ensure we were receiving updates.

The next day after the attacks we done, i felt everyone rally around each other. This was an event that shook the United States, yet just like back home we rallied around each other. We were already a team of teams but now we formed our band of brothers. I will never forget the faces that day that i served with. Most of us, just a couple years later deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom. We all recalled were we were that dark day. I will tell you no matter how dark, how lonely, how bad we felt that day, we rallied, mounted up and performed whatever duties and missions that came down to us.

I still keep touch with so many from that day. I still think about the grim faces in that Kuwaiti desert and on the various news coverages. But what i also remember was all the faces i served with. The sweat, the tears, the blood we shed. America has always rallied around tragedy and that is what sets us apart.

This September 11th I find myself back in Kuwait and it is surreal, despite missing my family and friends, I look around and see my extended family deployed out here with me and this is very comforting. We have an ALL Volunteer Army, We all are doing this job because of sense of duty and ensuring our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters continue to enjoy the precious gift of freedom we enjoy today.

God Bless all first responders, all military, all supporters of freedom, our coalitions partners, our fallen brothers and sisters and all Americans.”


LCpl. Christopher Dullea
Active Duty, Marine Corps
6672

“When I was in fifth grade, we all learned a national emergency had occurred. We couldn’t go outside, and we didn’t know anything. When I was picked up from school by my mom, she immediately told me, “Someone had hit the twin towers in New York.” I knew exactly what they were because a few years back we went there.

As I watched the TV and saw the two towers burning and screaming, crying, and just that awful sight, I knew there was going to be something I could do. I had recently been thinking of the military and this day pushed my motivation and interest to the highest. There was no doubt that the military was my future.

Now ten years later, I am a U.S. Marine, enlisting on September 9th, 2009. I fight for my family. I fight for the United States. I fight for my brothers and sisters. I fight for U.S. Constitution.”