Serving after 9/11: FIU military veterans reflect

Ten years ago, the world was changed forever by the events of 9/11. As men and women around the globe struggled to make sense of the attacks on the United States, Americans from all walks of life found common ground in their grief and resolve to move forward.

While the U.S. military did not see an up-tick in enlistments after 9/11, patriotism surged to levels not seen since Pearl Harbor in 1941. For some, 9/11 was a call to serve their country.

The FIU News team spoke with three members of the FIU family who served in the military after 2001: Ray Hernandez ’10, Jesse Lemon ’11 and Juan Muskus ’11. Lemon and Muskus joined the military as a direct result of the events of 9/11. Hernandez had been in basic training for less than one month at the time of the attacks. None of the three men are in the military today. Hernandez, an alumnus and program director of the university’s Model UN program, and Muskus, an alumnus and current graduate student, say they would do it all over again. Lemon, who graduated in the summer of 2011 and is a first-year law student at Ohio State, isn’t so sure.

Click on their videos below to hear, in their own words, the impact that 9/11 has had on their lives.