Many Civilians Detached From Wars Since 9/11, Veterans Say

America’s military response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th has defined a generation of service members. As part of our coverage on the anniversary of 9/11 we’ve asked a few in Middle Tennessee: What’s changed in the last decade?

One soldier who asked not to be named was in U.S. Army Ranger School when the attacks happened; he says at the time many were hungry to deploy.

“There was a lot of talk over the next week or two about getting out of Ranger School, quitting and going back to unit. We all thought that this was our big chance and someone was going to take down Afghanistan and that was going to be it. We didn’t know that there was plenty of war still for anyone that wanted it.”

None of them expected ten years of fighting would follow. He says in the decade since, the military has had to adjust, but it’s less clear what’s different at home.

“Civilian side, I don’t know. How much has changed, honestly? People’s awareness of things going on in the world I suppose has changed, but even that, people still often seem more interested in Kim Kardashian and what’s going on in Big Brother than what’s going on in Afghanistan or Iraq.”

That sentiment is echoed by Stephen Talley, a Navy deckhand whose ship left for the Middle East after 9/11. He says outside military families, many people seem detached.

“Sometimes when I try to talk to civilian people about it, their viewpoints are very shallow, probably because they haven’t been there, so they don’t really understand. And who really understands? Because at the end of the day I was told to go here and do this and do that, so I just choose to believe that what I was doing was right.”

Asked how he personally has changed, Talley says he’s gotten negative, frustrated by the seeming lack of progress – both abroad, and at home.