That much was clear on Sept. 11, 2001, for Spc. Israel Garcia, an Army reservist turned active-duty soldier at Fort Stewart.
"I knew we would go to war," Garcia said. "There was no way the United States could just sit back and allow this to happen to us."
The attacks changed the lives of America's service men and women.
Five years later, an elusive enemy, frequent combat rotations and mounting public frustration with President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq are putting new pressures on the few who volunteer to do the fighting.
Slightly more than one million troops have served in or around Iraq, about 0.4 percent of the U.S. population.
Compare that to the 16 million who served during World War II, when one in four men wore a uniform. Or the 9 million who went to Vietnam, a war in which one in 10 men served.
"Iraq is a big war, perhaps even a Great War; the nation has seen nothing like it in a generation. But it does not feel that way," wrote author Tim Heffernan, who analyzed war statistics earlier this year.
More than 222,000 people enlisted in the active-duty military or National Guard last year even as the Army and Marines continue to face recruiting challenges.
Whether inspired by patriotism, a promising career or attractive enlistment bonuses, men and women continue to volunteer and re-enlist during a time of war.
Some area soldiers, Marines and guardsmen recently shared their thoughts about how Sept. 11 changed their lives and influenced their decision to serve.
For many soldiers, the attacks reinforced their service commitment, said Col. Darrell Williams, commander of the 3rd Sustainment Brigade at Fort Stewart.
"You look at what happened on Sept. 11, and all of a sudden, the reality existed that your way of life and your family itself was being threatened," Williams said. "I think that magnified our commitment to not allow anyone to take that away."
Williams was commanding a task force of 500 soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo that day. They returned to Fort Stewart by Thanksgiving to find the rest of the 3rd Infantry Division on war footing, with a renewed focus on combat.
Williams left Fort Stewart for a new assignment as many of the soldiers he once commanded led the charge into Baghdad.
One, Staff Sgt. George Buggs, was among the first killed by enemy fire.
"When you see the names of those soldiers appear in news reports, and you know them personally, it's tough," he said during a recent visit to the Eastern Redbud tree planted at Fort Stewart in honor of Buggs. "You wished you could be there."
Now back with the 3rd ID, Williams said the "outstanding leadership and quality of soldiers we get keeps this division in a combat-ready posture."
The 20,000-soldier division completed its second yearlong tour in Iraq in January. It is now training one of its brigades for a possible third combat tour this fall.
Sgt. Eric Segundo, 31, could see the twin towers out his kitchen window as a boy in lower Manhattan.
"Not being able to see the towers anymore still really bothers me," he said. "When the attacks happened, I was looking for a way to help."
Segundo was living in Massachusetts in 2001. He didn't know that day's events would lead to war in Iraq. Nor did he know he'd join the Army, fight in that war and lose some of his closest friends to roadside bombs.
As the 3rd Infantry Division he'd eventually join crossed the berm into Iraq in early 2003, Segundo lost his way to a job interview. He asked a passing Army recruiter for directions.
"He talked about the benefits of enlisting, and I blew off the job interview and signed the papers that night," he said. "A month later, I was in basic training."
As Segundo recently walked the length of Warrior's Walk, the tree memorial for fallen soldiers at Fort Stewart, he paused at a stone marker bearing a familiar name: Sgt. 1st Class Ramon Acevedo-Aponte.
Acevedo-Aponte, 31, was killed by a roadside bomb on Oct. 26, 2005.
He and Segundo became fast friends after two other soldiers in their unit -- Sgt. Franklin Vilorio, 27, and Staff Sgt. Jude Jonaus, 26 -- were killed a month earlier.
"Sgt. Acevedo was a role model and a friend, and I'll live his legacy in me," Segundo said. "Life is very short, so you need to live it while you can. You never know when your day is going to come."
Spc. Michael Harle, 32, was a civilian working on a construction project at an Air Force base on the shores of Lake Michigan the day terrorists slammed planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
When he returned to his home near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport that night, there was a "dead, eerie calm" as airspace across the U.S. had been shut down.
"You could say the attacks lit a fire under my ass," he said. "It woke up a little pride, honor and loyalty I didn't know I had."
Three years later, Harle became irritated by his co-workers' complaints about the U.S.-led war in Iraq. So irritated he gave up his $65,000-a-year union job to enlist in the Army.
"No one was getting off their behinds to do anything," he said. "I knew we had guys in Iraq who served their time, came home and were getting ready to go back again."
Harle entered basic training in January of 2005 and is now an engineer specializing in construction for the 92nd Engineers Battalion at Fort Stewart. He'll soon leave for his second yearlong tour in Iraq.
"I knew when I volunteered that I was putting myself in harm's way," he said. "I wanted to prove I could do something more. I felt if I couldn't make it through basic training, I wasn't going to be able to accomplish much of anything else in my life."
As Spc. Israel Garcia neared the end of his second yearlong deployment in Iraq, he tried to convince his commanders to re-assign him to another unit so he could stay.
His request was denied, but the heavy equipment operator will soon get his wish when his Army unit, the 92nd Engineers at Fort Stewart, returns to Iraq this fall. It will mark Garcia's third yearlong combat tour since the war began.
"Most people think it's weird to be so excited to go over there again, but that's what I signed up for," he said.
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