Wesley Gautreaux was a 15-year-old sophomore at Piggott, Arkansas, on Sept. 11, 2001.
As his biology class watched news coverage of the events unfolding at the Twin Towers, he felt first fear and then anger.
When he joined the army at the age of 17, he understood what he would be called to do and the meaning of the war on terrorism.
At the age of 25, he was deployed to Afghanistan, where he would get to know the families and everyday lives of Afghanistan people who would become friends.
And at the age of 35, within weeks of the 20th anniversary of that initial act of terrorism, he would be providing support to some of those friends, Afghanistan men and women, fleeing their country in the face of the Taliban.
“My mindset over the past month or so has been one of, really, heartbreak, for the people of Afghanistan, heartbreak for the families of those that served and lost their lives there,” the father of two said.
As he reflects on the events that have shaped our lives for two decades, Gautreaux has tried to focus on the things he can control and the understanding that news coverage of current events barely scratches the surface of what is actually going on.
“I did not leave there with the most comfortable feeling that things could be sustained,” Gautreaux said of his 10-month deployment in 2012. “It’s kind of like, you got a bursting water pipe and you put some JB Weld on it. And that does the trick for a little while, but it’s eventually going to burst open again.”
While the soldiers saw success in their training of Afghan nationals in how to fulfill the role of an army, Gautreaux questioned even then how they would continue without the U.S. military to provide a supply chain and structure.
The culture also doesn’t recognize the boundaries man has established.
“Afghanistan doesn’t have cultural lines with Pakistan. There’s a man-made border down the middle of it, but tribes extend over into Pakistan. (They) don’t see that man-made border as anything, so they’re crossing over, back and forth,” Gautreaux said.
But those are concerns that fall into the realm of the uncontrollable, at least for Gautreaux.
What he could do was be available to help, or just to listen, as friends he had made, Afghanistan translators, tried to leave their country with their American allies.
“My interpreters, I look at them just like any of my guys. They went on every single mission with us. They’re exposed to the same dangers we are,” he said. “There are a lot of people saying they don’t understand why they’re letting them come to the United States.
“It frustrates me because when you talk to my interpreters, they had no intentions of coming to the United States either.
“But when they took the jobs as interpreters, they were under the assumption that we were going to go there, we were going to make it safe for their families. We were going to eliminate the Taliban, and they will never have to worry about leaving their home country. That didn’t happen.”
Gautreaux stayed in contact with one former interpreter as he hid in basements while making his way to the Kabul airport with his wife and infant son. The family was able to make it out and to a U.S. Army base for processing for a special immigration visa.
Another former interpreter was able to make it to Canada.
And even at this difficult time, it is also in them that Gautreaux sees what may be a glimmer of hope for generational change.
While most people want to hear about his time “fighting the bad guys,” a lot of his time in Afghanistan was spent building positive relationships, through simple interactions like visiting with village leaders and providing school supplies to children.
“When I was there, interacting with the kids and showing them that we’re not there to hurt people. ... We want you to go to school, we want you to learn, we want you to one day grow up and have an education and be successful,” he said. “So I think those are some of the things that, yeah, ... it has a generational impact. And that goes both ways too though, when you have negative interactions with people.”
Another former interpreter has been in the United States for six years. The man arrived with $12 in his pocket, Gautreaux said, and has since become an over-the-road truck driver in Texas with plans to start his own business. He and his wife have children who were born here.
Gautreaux believes these men and their families aren’t alone in wanting to see change in their home country.
For Gautreaux, something else that is important as the country marks the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, is what comes next.
The 20th anniversary of Sept. 12 marks what he believes was the most united the country has been in the past two decades.
“I am going to try to focus on that day and focus on remembering there’s been other instances where the United States... When we go through hardship, it seems like is when we’re the most united, like after (Hurricane) Katrina,” Gautreaux said. “Maybe remembering Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary, will also help people not only remember the sacrifices that were made that day by the first responders and the firemen, but also will help people remember that our best days are the days that we’re united, and we come together and we help one another.
“Because that’s what the United States does in my eyes.
“We may be a melting pot of different cultures and races and ethnicities, but at the end of the day, we’re, we help our neighbors. We help our brother and our sister.”
Gautreaux works as a social worker at John J. Pershing VA Medical Center. He and his wife have two children, 9 and 5.