Harrison Recalls Military Service Before And After 9/11
Derek Redd Trending
The eight years Jeremy Harrison served in the Army Reserves and on active duty in the Middle East were split by the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
A resident of Glen Dale, Harrison enlisted in 1997, not too long after he had graduated from Wheeling Park High School, and was honorably discharged in May 2005. Those eight years had a lasting impact on many aspects of his life.
“Most of the people who I knew who knew I was in the military definitely noticed a change in me when I came back,” Harrison said. “I was always a pretty disciplined individual. I grew up with three brothers and I was a wrestler. There’s a lot of discipline that goes along with wrestling, so it was a natural fit for me.
“The physical challenges aside, you do learn respect,” he added. “Not that I was disrespectful before, but you really get a sense of respect in that regard. I had pride in what I was doing. I was proud of myself and that I would get through it and do something that could potentially be so significant. Whatever that service might be while I was in the military, I was looking forward to being able to serve my country in a way that most people I knew didn’t do.”
The founder of the Wheeling-based Helping Heroes organization said that he knew that chance would come after watching the terror attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., as well as the crash of the hijacked United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa., play out in real time on television. He explained that he was doing an internship at a facility for young people and was working to finish his degree in criminal justice when the news broke.
“That was probably going to be that opportunity to serve,” Harrison said. “It was surreal at first, but I knew that I was going to be getting a call pretty quickly — which I did. They were calling to make sure that they had all my contact information and that they knew where I was, and they told me to be on standby and ready to go.”
He returned home so he could be near his reserve unit and then learned that it probably would not be called right away. Members of that unit were told they were going to be preparing for imminent future deployment.
“There were a lot of emotions when that happened, and the fact that we were attacked was one of the worst things that ever happened in this country,” Harrison said. “My wife, Susan, and I have been watching a documentary about 9/11 on Netflix, and it has referred to some of the things during that time that we weren’t really aware of. We went through those emotions again. There were times when my wife was tearing up at some of the stuff that was on the screen, and that day still hangs really heavy for us.
“Everything that I have done since that day changed my life,” he added. “Especially when I was eventually deployed, and we were still at a point where we knew we were probably going to war. The United States was still together -- there seemed to be more unity in our country during that time.”
He said that he and members of his unit -- part of the 459th Engineering Company -- were biding their time training and completing paperwork.
“We started hearing about Iraq and thought that might be where we would go,” Harrison added. “We weren’t positive, though, because we were a bridging unit, and in our naive 18-, 19- and 20-year-old minds, we thought we would not have to go there because it was in this big desert.
“Well, that wasn’t the case at all. That’s where my mind was during that time -- where were you going to go, and let’s get there and get the job done,” he added.
His deployment to Iraq lasted one year and one day -- from Valentine’s Day 2003 through Valentine’s Day 2004.
Harrison said the country has changed a lot since that period.
“It’s tough to see what’s happening. I try my best to pay attention to what’s going on in this country, and compared to what it like during that time versus now, it’s almost night and day,” he said. “We have service members who are dying right now because of the war we have going on with Iran, and in other places that we don’t always hear about. It’s frustrating.”
After he returned home, Harrison said he started working with the Veterans Administration at a center in Morgantown.
“I was in a unique position at at that time. I got my master’s degree, and I became a therapist for veterans who had readjustment issues,” he said.
“I was a veteran who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder who was treating veterans with PTSD. This was going back to veterans of World War II, but I was also seeing new veterans. During that time, people were thanking me, people wanted to talk to me. They wanted to do good stories. They wanted to do stories about what veterans were dealing with, on a local and national level,” Harrison continued.
The country, he said, seemed to be much more appreciative of the work members of the military had been doing at that time.
“I felt good about being a service member, a veteran, and I felt good that our country seemed to be supporting us, though there were some protests about the war in Iraq,” Harrison explained. “People treated me well. I was still living in the area that I grew up in, so people knew who I was and I got free drinks, and free this and free that all of the time. I really felt like I did something good.
“But you can’t compare that to what it’s like today,” he added. “I still work with veterans in a different capacity, and they will tell you that they don’t get much recognition for anything, in terms of their service. They wear their hats and shirts, and still, people won’t say thanks for your service. That’s the minimum of what people can do for a service member. That means a lot, and we end up thinking it’s a big deal, because it’s really the only thing that we hear or receive from somebody else.”
Harrison said the current situation means more help will be needed.
“It’s frustrating when I see what our veterans, our service members, are going through now,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of them --we don’t know where the war is going to go. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but there’s definitely going to be a contingent of veterans who are dealing with readjustment issues again, and that’s frustrating to me.”
Harrison and his wife started the nonprofit Helping Heroes in Moundsville in 2010. It’s since moved to Wheeling, and provides housing and support services to veteran families that are struggling financially. He said he was spurred to start the organization after seeing a lot of veterans who were couch surfing and homeless. He left his job with the VA in 2013 to work with the group full time.
“I want our veterans to know that there are people who care for them and who are here to help them and their families,” Harrison said. “A lot of veterans are still struggling with adjustment issues. Suicide rates are high or higher than they ever were. I just want veterans to know that there are places they can go, such as Helping Heroes or the VA, to help them when they are struggling, and they can be proud about what they did because of what happened to our country.”