Colorado lawmakers share how 9/11 shaped their careers

Colorado lawmakers share how 9/11 shaped their careers

Fifteen-year-old Gabe Evans watched the carnage unfold at home in Colorado. In Wisconsin, college senior Jason Crow saw the attacks on TV — and made a life-altering choice.

Why it matters: The Sept. 11 attacks helped propel both future Colorado congressmen toward military service, shaping careers that would eventually carry them from combat zones to Capitol Hill.

The big picture: Both served in the U.S. Army and National Guard and deployed to the Middle East.

Crow, a Democrat, says 9/11 prompted him to seek active-duty service. "I was unwilling to let other people go and do my fighting for me," he said in a video posted Thursday.

  • Crow's roughly four-year military career included combat tours, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He earned a Bronze Star for his service.

    • Evans, a Republican, joined in 2007 and served for 12 years. His family's military history — including a grandfather who served in World War II — drove his decision, with memories of 9/11 weighing on him.

  • He signed up while in college, reaching the rank of captain while serving abroad and specializing as a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot.
  • He served under three administrations, telling us he never had doubts about his presence in the Middle East.

    • Between the lines: Evans belongs to the bipartisan For Country Caucus, whose nearly 40 veteran members pledge not to campaign against one another.

  • Crow, a former caucus co-chair, is no longer listed as a member and has publicly backed Evans' opponent.

    • Still, Evans says military service gives veterans in Congress common ground even when they disagree publicly.

  • "We all wore our country's uniform and nobody cared what your political party was," Evans tells us.

    • Crow strikes a similar tone, but he went a step further in his video, questioning the legacy of wars that followed 9/11, saying the U.S. "should not be in an endless cycle of conflict."

  • "I think we have to have a national conversation about it," Crow adds.

    • The bottom line: Crow and Evans returned home from their deployments. Thousands of other Americans did not.

  • 107 Coloradans died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to iCasualties.
  • More than 7,000 Americans died in the two conflicts.