Remembering 9/11

Remembering the colleagues we lost: A veteran's Memorial Day reflection

The EOD technician-turned-pilot lost colleagues in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001

By Rob Maness Fox News

Published May 24, 2026 7:09am EDT

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Honoring fallen veterans this Memorial Day

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins reflects on the true cost of war and the sacrifices made by service members. He emphasizes remembering those who didn't return home and upholding their memory.

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This Memorial Day, as our nation pauses to honor those who gave their last full measure of devotion, I find myself thinking not of abstract statistics or distant battlefields, but of the faces, the names and the laughter of the colleagues I lost along the way.

I enlisted in the Air Force as an explosive ordnance disposal technician in 1979. For more than three decades, I served in uniform, from the flight line to the cockpit of the B-1 bomber, from squadron command to wing command, through nuclear operations and multiple combat deployments. Along that journey, I buried friends. I stood at attention as Taps echoed across cemetery lawns. I watched as folded flags were placed into the trembling hands........

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