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I was in grade school, in rural Alabama. We were put in the library and then a TV was wheeled in and turned on, showing the two towers burning. I was good friends with a pair of twin boys. I don't remember which was in the room with me, but he was crying. Both brothers wound up doing tours in Afghanistan 10+ years later. I could talk about how insane the Courtesy of the Red White and Blue era was, from 9/11 to invading Iraq, but when I think of 9/11 I think of the veterans.
Mercifully, most of the guys I know who spent time in the sandbox made it out more or less alright. But then there was Zach. Zach was a coworker of mine at a pizza place circa 2010. I didn't know him super well, only knew that he'd had a five alarm meltdown over a minor fender bender on the job and that was the last I saw of him. Another driver I was closer with explained: They'd grown up together, done Boy Scouts together, and so on. Apparently he'd done two tours in Iraq. The first was a cakewalk. The second was Fallujah, and he'd survived in body but not in spirit, lost his best friend in rather graphic fashion (The driver who told me this, an Air Force brat who'd been kept out of the service by a bad back, used to drive me nuts in how he'd get guys fired up to tell their war stories but not really listen to them.).
The last I heard Zach was on drugs and in and out of jail. I have no idea what happened to him. I hope that he's found peace, in this life or the next.
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