The Revival Pt. 15: Quotes that Struck Me

"I was afraid of not being able to come home for any reason. And then every time I did something I didn’t know if it was gonna be the last time.”

This quote hit me like a ton of bricks. He was twenty-four years old when he got deployed overseas. I could not imagine what it would be like to have such a fear of death and a fear of never seeing my loved ones again. I can’t imagine the anticipation he must felt in the time frame when he was told he was being deployed until he actually arrived in the Middle East. This is a point I might go back to on the next interview.

 

“I feel I did a service. ‘Cause when I initially signed up it was in ’99 and the world was a totally different place. So, I never expected any of this to happen.”

I keep listening to this particular quote of the interview over and over again. I think a lot of us (me included) forget what life was like eleven years ago. We were a country with no war. We were a country with citizens that walked around feeling almost invincible, or indestructible. The only footage from disgruntled countries with roadside bombing, etc. was on the world news or CNN. Most of the country was oblivious to what would happen to our country two years later. I confirmed my fact that my husband had no idea that he would ever go to war. I think most military recruits felt that way.

It’s such a different time now, and has been since 9/11. The recruits coming in at least have an idea of what they are in for, but the recruits in the late 90s probably assumed that they would never have to battle the front lines in a foreign place. Especially, since the Desert Storm war of the early 90s. Before that it had been years since the United States were involved in a serious war. You could almost see the innocence in his eyes as he spoke of his lack of expectations for his time in service. It was almost as if he was speaking as his nineteen year old self, “So, I never expected any of this to happen.”

This is one of the main reasons I have been torturing myself to learn video-editing and bought new software! I feel the facial expressions, along with the audio is very captivating. It also creates a closer connection to the interviewee and the audience.

“I just remember how patriotic everyone was and everyone was all about America. And so, ya know we were a very visual force ‘cause we were made to be. So, we would be there with ya know a Hum-V with a big machine gun on top of it and there would be four or five of us surrounding it and ya know people would always come up to us, and talk to us. I just remember New Year’s Eve especially, we were there, and everyone was stopping and bringing all sorts of food and booze.” (Picture a big smile while saying the word booze!)

This was an almost nostalgic portion of our interview. I remember the day. We all do. If you were born, you remember where you were when the terrorist attacks on 9/11 occurred. You remember who you were with or what you were doing at the exact moment that the second plane hit, or the terror that you felt when the next plane and the next plane hit. But, another thing I remember about that time was the patriotism of our country. You could not go anywhere without seeing an American flag. There were flags on houses, business, bicycles, and even cars. I cannot imagine how magnified that patriotism must had been in New York City.

I’m thinking about asking him what the contrast was between the patriotism of 9/11 compared to 2005 when he came home from overseas. Was there a celebration? Were people as kind? Was there a parade? I’m thinking there was a big difference in how people felt about those two different time periods.

The end of that clip struck me as well. He talks about various “strangers” so to speak giving them food and booze all the time, especially New Year’s Eve. His face lit up when he said the word booze, but I think he was just had a genuine good feeling about how people reacted to him and the others. New Year’s Eve? I never thought about that. If we was deployed to Ground Zero on September 13, 2001 and was still there on December 31st, just think of all the holidays he missed. He missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s?

He was just twenty-one years old when he was called to go to Ground Zero. It would’ve been his first New Year’s Eve to legally go out and celebrate the coming of a new year. Instead, he was in the streets of New York protecting and preserving what was left after the horrific events. When he was deployed overseas, he was there for over a year, so that means he missed every holiday for the whole year. On my next interview I might want to dig deeper into this aspect of detachment, if there was any. He missed out on so many different events that I believe we, as Americans, take for granted. I want to know if that had any effect on him. Did he feel like he was frozen in time?