Editor's note: This account was written by MAJ Joel Jessup, U.S. Army (Ret.), and reaches the Department through Officer Glick's collection of September 11 stories. The words run below exactly as written. Jessup enlisted between junior and senior year of high school in 1998, was a National Guard infantryman on September 11, deployed to Afghanistan, commissioned through OCS in 2012, retired as a Major in 2023, and is now the first Detective in a hometown police department. The watches are a Timex Weekender and a women's Timex Ironman Triathlon worn as a field watch. The original Weekender is back on the wrist.
I enlisted between my junior and senior year of high school, July 1998, OSUT at Ft Benning in 99 and deployed to Kuwait in ‘00, landing the day the USS Cole was bombed. On September 11th, 2001, I was a national guard infantryman who had been home from a force protection mission for about 6 months when 9/11 kicked off. I was also in the application process for my local volunteer fire department. I deployed again within a couple months for another force pro mission in Germany that we were sure would result in a Middle East swing that never happened.
By December we were alerted for the Germany Force Protection mission. I turned 21 in Ft Stewart on the way home from that deployment the following July. At the time I wore one of two watches. A Timex Weekender (that I still have) and a women’s Timex Ironman triathlon as a field watch.
I took an HR position in 2004 to go AGR, did Afghanistan in ‘08/‘09. In 2012 I attended OCS and commissioned. In 2022 I deployed as an O4, Major, as the Deputy Director of Manpower and Personnel for Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa and retired when I returned in 2023. I made it about 8 months in retirement before deciding I needed a grown up job and applied for and was selected as a patrol officer in my home town and recently assumed the role of that departments first Detective.
In the last two years I went down a watch rabbit hole. I found the Weekender, it’s in my wedding photos from ‘06 as well. I bought an Ironman like I used to wear as well. I’ve put together a sub collection of watches from each era of conflict from WWI to OEF. Some issued style some civilian. Still finding pieces to add to that collection. .