"I knew instantly that my life changed."
Lt. Col. Liam Collins was overseas completing exercises with his Special Forces unit on Sept. 11, 2001, and that night he knew things were going to change, but he was ready for the challenge.
A month later he was dropping into Afghanistan.
"It was something that you had been training for your whole career," says Collins. "In a lot of ways it is like a firefighter. You train and train and train and you really don't want to go, but part of you wants to go. You constantly have that feeling that it is best that you never had to go, but if someone has to go, I hope I am the one to go.