9/11: The Last Of His Kind

Tom Pae joined the United States Military Academy at West Point shortly after graduating from .

It was 2001.

For nearly three months, he was like any other freshman who had gone to West Point before him, but that quickly changed on Sept. 11, 2001.

News of the attacks against the United States quickly spread throughout the military academy.

“As you walked by classrooms, everyone was glued to the TV screen,” Pae recalled. “I remember being very glued to the TV…trying to comprehend what was going on. My reaction was not any different than the rest of the world when it happened.”

Pae, now 28, never intended to become a career officer, but the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 strengthened his passion for serving his country.

"The big question becomes why would I want to stay after [9/11]. And it comes down to ... it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. It seemed like as if the nation was calling and it was a necessary sacrifice and an opportunity to give back,” Pae said.

After graduating, Pae carried out a number of assignments overseas. While most of his time was spent in Europe, he was also deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

He described his time in the Middle East as an “eye-opening experience, to say the least.”

“We were fighting a war where the smallest decision could have the largest … consequences,” Pae said. 

Being an army officer meant Pae would spend months away from home – in areas where tasks as simple as talking with soldiers and citizens from other countries became a challenge.

Things like language barriers, not being able to drive his own car and even not seeing green grass for 18 months changed Pae. It made him appreciate freedoms that people can easily take for granted.

“And a hug… simple things like a hug from your loved one,” he said.

His biggest lesson as a military man has been an appreciation for diversity.

“It’s something that I cherish as I go through my days in the army and definitely will cherish for the rest of my life and be humbled,” Pae said. “… To live in another country and be a foreigner on other person’s land…you don’t understand that until you’re that person,” Pae said.

Ten years after his freshman year at West Point, Pae is now stationed in Kentucky, where he is planning a wedding with his fiancé. Time has flown, he said, but Sept. 11 remains a moment of reflection each year.

“It’s an opportunity to pause and reflect for a short time, even if it’s just once year,” Pae said.

“It becomes a poignant moment every year… I take a quick reflection how far this nation has come and how far personally I have become. It’s a different world than what we experienced and what we knew back in 2000.”