When Angel Camacho joined the Army after graduating from Waukegan High School in 2000, he never could’ve imagined what was to come from his service.
The 38-year-old, who now lives in Zion with his family, said he just wanted to get away to someplace different from where he’d been.
“I just thought then, that maybe I’d go to college and become somebody,” Camacho said. “I never thought I’d see war.”
Meanwhile, plans of an attack on the country and its citizens were brewing and were carried out on Sept. 11, 2001.
On 9/11, Camacho was 18, had just finished his training the month before and was stationed in New York.
“It got real too fast,” he said.
His job was to look for possible explosives in and around the wreckage from the twin towers of the World Trade Center so the area could be cleared for rescue crews to search for possible survivors.
“It was like a nightmare,” Camacho said. “You feel the fear; the smell of death is one thing you never forget.”
He served six tours after that — three in Afghanistan, and three in Iraq — before retiring in 2012.
Retiring was more of a decision made for him by fate, he said, as he was wounded in 2010 when clearing roadside bombs in Iraq.
Bedridden for two years, his health care providers warned him he most likely wouldn’t walk again.
“They were right,” Camacho said. “I don’t walk, I run. I proved them wrong.”
On the 20th anniversary of the day that reshaped what he thought his life would be like, Camacho reflects on all the horrors he’s seen from humanity, but he also passionate about helping others, something he said he learned during his service.
“I was very young. I was a kid learning about things I never thought I’d see in my life, and I grew up too fast,” he said.
But he doesn’t regret a thing. In fact, he’d do it all over again if he had to, he said.
Every Sept. 11 is a day when he likes to remember friends who never made it home. He doesn’t enjoy going to events commemorating that day that include BBQs or other boisterous activities, he said.
It’s a solemn and quiet day for him.
How he continues to serve others now is by volunteering at the Midwest Veterans Closet in North Chicago, where he said he does whatever is asked of him.
“When you talk to other veterans, no matter what uniform, we can all relate,” Camacho said. “9/11 and everything that came from that was a nasty experience, but it was inspirational the way police, firefighters and us worked together to save people.”
His story is one of many that narrate how that one morning unified strangers and made helpers out of so many.
He said helping is addictive. It’s not something you stop doing after you’ve learned what impact it has in the world.
Drill sergeant calls it a turning point
For Eugene Siewe, the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were shocking.
“We never knew something like that could happen at home,” he said.
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Since he was 18, he wanted to join the Navy, and in 2002 he did.
“In a country like this one, I believe there are people who have to stand up for others,” Siewe said.
Now a drill sergeant at Naval Station Great Lakes, the 42-year-old father says for him, 9/11 is a touchy subject.
It was a turning point for everyone in the country, including him, and while he said he was scared to be in a position of protector, that same fear was what he drew from to do what was needed.
He’s hard on the young cadets he trains, he said.
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Although he doesn’t specifically refer to the 9/11 attacks, he’s always reflective of that day and indirectly summons it up in his speeches about how missteps can get people hurt.
What has come from a day filled with tragedy, shock, terror and confusion, are scars that so many have in a variety of ways.
Moving forward with intent is how some heal.
For Siewe, it helps to know he’s helping prepare generations to protect the country.
For Camacho, volunteering at a place that serves his fellow veterans makes him feel great.
At the American Legion, it’s by way of providing scholarships, that they repay servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving on active duty on or after 9/11.
Legacy Scholarships
Through the national organization’s Legacy Scholarship that was created in 2002, children of those men and women are qualified to apply for a needs-based scholarship.
Children of post-9/11 veterans who have been assigned a combined Department of Veterans Affairs disability rating of 50 % or greater can also apply for financial assistance toward higher education.
Americanism Division Director Jill Druskis, said it’s an honor to be able to directly help those families.
Since its inception, more than 400 scholarships have been awarded — 16 in Illinois.
Fundraising for the program comes from American Legions throughout the country, with the biggest contributor being the American Legion Riders, who annually make the American Legion Legacy Run that has generated more than $1 million, Druskis said.
“We, at the American Legion, will never forget 9/11,” Druskis said. “We’re excited each year for those young students who apply at [www.legion.org/scholarships/legacy] and give us a chance to serve them.”