When the first plane struck the World Trade Center, Michael Light figured it was an accident. But he knew something was wrong as he watched the news and a second aircraft hit the twin towers, followed by others crashing into the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
As the United States invaded Iraq in the following years, Light saw pictures of soldiers wounded and killed in combat. Some of them were just 18 years old — almost the same age as he was when he first joined the U.S. Army in 1972.
More than two decades had passed since Light left the service. He was approaching age 50, but he couldn’t shake his memory of the terrorist attack that killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil. Light felt he had to do something.
“I took 9/11 very personally,” he said. “I kind of made a deal with God. If you’ll just help me get back in, I can take a kid’s place. If somebody’s going to die, then maybe I can at 50. I’ve had a good life.”
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