From boy to soldier

By Tracee Sprau: I had put my then two children onto the school bus the morning of 9/11 and sat down to have some breakfast and do homework for classes at NIACC with "Good Morning America" on in the foreground. My husband was home sick that day and was resting in bed, when the news broadcast broke into the show about the first tower being hit.

I started to really take notice about 30 seconds into it. Then the other plane hit the second tower, and I got chills all over and paced around the room. Watching the bedlam happening in New York City and seeing flames, smoke and dust, it was too real and I was crying.

I went in and told my husband. I vaguely remember him coming into the living room to stand behind me to watch, too. Later I asked him if he thought we should pick up our kids at school, and he said, "No, they are better to stick with their routines."

Later, when they came home from school, our son, who was 10 at the time, was talking about how he and his friends were going to "shoot some bad guys." My daughter was 7 and was thankfully oblivious to it all. I remember praying that my son would never have to take part in a war that I predicted that day would happen.

Never in a million years did I imagine that not only would this war still be going on, but that sweet 10-year-old boy would now, 10 years later, be one of the brave soldiers fighting in it. Specialist Jacob Sprau is 20 and a member of the Minnesota National Guard 2-135th.