{"id":67603,"date":"2017-09-10T17:52:21","date_gmt":"2017-09-10T17:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/09\/10\/commentary-your-help-needed-as-global-war-on-terror-memorial-takes-shape\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:19:10","slug":"commentary-your-help-needed-as-global-war-on-terror-memorial-takes-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2017\/09\/10\/commentary-your-help-needed-as-global-war-on-terror-memorial-takes-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Your help needed as Global War on Terror Memorial takes shape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was just 12 years old when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. The conflicts in Afghanistan, and later Iraq, were a world away from my small hometown in Florida. Nevertheless, the Global War on Terrorism would come to shape my adolescence and define my adult life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2007, I would answer the call to serve my country by attending the U.S. Military Academy. More selfishly, I wanted to serve alongside the men and women who had dedicated their lives to a cause greater than themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three weeks before my graduation from West Point, Osama bin Laden \u2014 the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks \u2014 was killed. I naively thought that the war would soon be over and all my preparation would have been for naught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet nearly 12 years after 9\/11, I had the privilege of serving in Afghanistan with my brothers and sisters in arms. In those months overseas I learned the meaning of dedication, the cost of commitment, and the true value of sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I prepared to leave the Army and enter graduate school, I was presented with a historic opportunity: to help build a memorial for our veterans and all those who supported them during our nation\u2019s longest war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This memorial isn\u2019t for me. It\u2019s for the men and women I had the fortune of working with who were on their fourth or fifth trip overseas. It\u2019s for the fathers and mothers away from their families for the third or fourth year, for their sons and daughters whose parents were gone for what seemed like forever. It\u2019s for the husbands and wives separated from their partners during the most difficult times of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Global War on Terror Memorial is for a country disconnected from the sacrifices made by the few, for the safety of the many.<\/p>\n\n\n\t