Generation War: Once Children During 9/11, Now Soldiers In Afghanistan

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Generation War: Once Children During 9/11, Now Soldiers In Afghanistan
TODD PITMAN | 11/ 4/10 02:42 PM | AP

MARJAH, Afghanistan — Lance Cpl. Jacob Adams was in 5th grade math class when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. His parents took him out of school early that day.

Adams, 20, is now serving in a Marine battalion battling Taliban gunmen, many of whom were also just kids on Sept. 11, 2001. He's part of a new generation of U.S. troops inheriting the wars spawned by the terror attacks.

Many of the men and women who took part in the initial invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have since left the military and moved on with their lives. The changing of the guard is a graphic and personal reminder that the fighting has dragged on longer than anyone ever imagined.

"It's kind of weird having watched it all on the news those first days," said Adams. "And then 10 years later, here I am, and here we are still fighting it."

Adams is on his first combat tour – with the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, which deployed to Afghanistan in July. He spoke at a rugged outpost called Typhoon 4, where his squad patrols an endless patchwork of fields growing cotton, corn, marijuana, opium poppies and other crops. There are no paved roads or electricity here in Marjah. There are plenty of hidden bombs.