Remembering 9/11 with Iraq War Vet John Kriesel
In Season One of the podcast, John Kriesel shared his experience as a survivor of a devastating roadside bomb that earned him a Purple Heart during the Iraq War.
Now John, who is veteran services director for Anoka County in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, reflects back 20 years to the September 11th attacks and the events that brought him to fight for his country. He explains how time and becoming a father changed his perspective on the war and why it’s vital future generations remember what happened.
Following his return to civilian life, John was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives. He was one of the few Republicans to oppose legislation that would have made same-sex marriage illegal. As an advocate for the veteran community, John regularly shares his story as a motivational speaker and has authored a book, “Still Standing,” which details his time in Iraq and his remarkable recovery.
Transcript
Don MacPherson:
Hi, this is Don MacPherson, your host of 12 Geniuses. In Season One, John Kriesel shared his experience as a survivor of a devastating roadside bomb that earned him a Purple Heart during the Iraq War. This time, John reflects back 20 years to the attacks of 9/11 and the events that brought him to fight for his country a few years later. This episode of 12 Geniuses is sponsored by the think2perform Research Institute, an organization committed to advancing moral, purposeful, and emotionally intelligent leadership.
John, welcome back to 12 Geniuses. It's been a couple of years since we talked and your life has been quite busy. Last time we talked, we focused mainly on your deployment in Iraq and the injuries that you suffered through an improvised explosive device. Maybe you could just start there and just remind people of your story.
John Kriesel:
Sure. Yeah. December 2nd 2006, we were on a patrol near Fallujah, Iraq, and we encountered a 200-pound improvised explosive device. I lost two of my best friends in the blast. I was severely injured. I wasn't expected to survive. I remember laying there seeing my injury, seeing the amount of blood that I lost and basically in my mind, coming to grips with the fact that I was going to die.
And so I thankfully survived. My best friend Tim Nelson survived. And then one of our other guys, Bruce Miller, survived the blast as well. So from that day forward, really waking up in the hospital and realizing that I did survive something that I really shouldn't have and two of my best friends had been killed in changed my life. Changed my mindset. Really forced me to appreciate the little things in life. To try and slow down and smell the roses. And life is crazy. It's unpredictable. And so what is here now may not be here 10 minutes from now. And so I try to just live life to the absolute fullest. Try and be as thankful as I can be for the life that I have and the people in my life and all of that good stuff. I'm a blessed guy.
Don MacPherson:
If I remember correctly, you went through basic training when you were 17 years old. So you enlisted in the Army National Guard, correct?
John Kriesel:
Yes. So I went to basic training between junior and senior year in high school, which was 1999. I graduated in 2000 from White Bear Lake High School in Minnesota. And then that following summer of 2000, I went back down to Fort Benning to do my job training. So when you do it the split option, you go through basic training one summer, whether it's high school or college, and then the following year, you go through your specialty training. So if you were a medic, you'd go through that. I was infantry so we went through infantry school. The world was much different back then. That was before 9/11 and a lot has changed in that time.
Don MacPherson:
And that's what I wanted to ask you about because we're releasing this episode September 7th, 2021. And that's just a few days before the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the 9/11 attacks. Where were you on 9/11?
John Kriesel:
I was working at an ink manufacturing facility in Minneapolis and I had just started there. It was a great job. It was a very physically demanding. It paid extremely well. The amount of raises you got every quarter were awesome. So for a young guy with no college education, it was fantastic. I won't bore everyone with the details, but that's where I was. And I was listening to the KQRS Morning Show, and I vividly remember them talking about it. At first they thought it was an accident. That there was a plane that clipped a building. And then as they were talking about it, plane two hit and immediately the tone changed. It went from being like, Wow, this is a crazy news story, to We are at war. I was in the National Guard at that time. We weren't activated, but we had to stay in touch with our leadership because none of us knew what was going to happen.
Don MacPherson:
What were you thinking? Were you worried about your future? Being that you were enlisted, it wasn't implausible to be called up and to go to a foreign theater, right?
John Kriesel:
Right. I assumed that we would go, but I do remember I was very angry. I was very angry and I think a lot of people were. Whoever was responsible for this, I wanted to be a part of making them pay a price. At 39, I don't know if I would probably look at it the same way, but at 19 we're wired different. A lot more full of testosterone and wanted to just go get even. It's funny now. And when I go out and give these speeches, when I give my speeches out at places, a lot of them are corporations, but some of them are high schools. And these kids don't remember what it was like.
Don MacPherson:
They weren't alive.
John Kriesel:
Right. And that is mind-blowing to me. Someday when I have to explain to my daughter what that day was like and how it changed our future, ultimately changed my future because in a domino effect kind of way, what happened to me was a result of 9/11. We went to war with Iraq because they were a threat. And now with the new information after 9/11 it was basically like, We can't sit back and wait to get attacked. If we know someone's a threat to us and they have the capability, we need to go and preemptively strike. And so we went to Iraq and obviously it was a few years into the Iraq conflict, but I don't think that this would have happened to me if 9/11 hadn't happened. So it's kind of a weird chain of events that led to that.
Don MacPherson:
How did the events of that day change the way you view the world?
John Kriesel:
I don't want to say hardened me, but it made me a lot more guarded. Because before that, I'm very easy going, happy-go-lucky. And a lot of people talk about peace. And when I grew up in elementary school, it was peace on earth, peace this... That was kind of a realization that there is no such thing and there never will be. And we knew that before, but that really reinforced that as just because of our way of life, those people that went to work that morning, we're going to support their families and go to do their job. And because a group of extremists hates the way that we live our life here, our American way of life, our freedom, our values, they had to go and attack those people.
And it upset me because those people had nothing to do with what Al-Qaeda and bin Laden were upset about. They're upset at our government. And okay, then you fight us. You fight our military. You fight our trained, our equipped, our warriors. You don't attack innocent civilians. And so after that, I don't know. It kind of changed my mindset of just how fragile life is, how fragile our freedom is, and how something simple like how 19 people could change the entire world. It was just mind-blowing.
Don MacPherson:
It's been 20 years now. When you look back, how has your perspective shifted on the events of 9/11?
John Kriesel:
I don't know if it's time or age or maturity or a little bit of all, but I feel like... Now, I'll never forget it and it definitely was one of the worst days of my life. And we need to make sure that people don't forget about 9/11 or it could happen again. Looking back on that and just seeing what it started and how it changed our history, that's one thing. I'm glad it happened when I was that age. If it happened now and being a new parent, I don't know.
It's weird when you're responsible for protecting a young one. And in that situation, we all felt so helpless. And that's not a good feeling as a parent. And what do you say? How do you explain? It's that balance of being like, the world is a dangerous place. It is a mean place at times. There's far more good than bad, but that bad can be really bad. And so it's trying to insulate our children from that kind of thing and not having to see that, but also educating them that it's not all unicorns and flamingos and rainbows, that there are bad people always trying to harm us no matter what, just for doing the things we do in the United States. Going to work, enjoying ourself, going on vacation. There are people that dislike us because of that.
Don MacPherson:
When you look back, do you have any regrets?
John Kriesel:
No. And I don't know if it's because I'm not wired that way. I know that I can't go back and change anything in the past. It's over and done with. So I try to just learn from things. So obviously I wish we didn't hit the bomb when we did on the deployment and all of that, but that's out of my control.
I'm glad that I was in a situation to answer a call, to be part of something greater than myself, to be part of a team of people trying to bring freedom to people on the other side of the world. To give them a little peek at what we oftentimes take for granted here. So, no, I don't have any regrets. I would go back and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I am thankful for the perspective I have, for the lessons I've learned, and it's made me the person I am today. So I feel like I'm happy with who I am so I wouldn't want to change anything from the past really.
Don MacPherson:
That's one of the things I admire about you, John.
John Kriesel:
Thank you.
Don MacPherson:
It's an unbelievable perspective that you have. Will you do anything special to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11?
John Kriesel:
That weekend I have a work conference with the Minnesota Association of County Veterans Service Officers. We go up to Grand View. Tim Nelson will be with, and I know that that day, it means a lot to him as well and all of the people that will be up there. To be a CVSO you have to be a veteran. So everyone up there had served, many of them in post 9/11 deployments. And so it will be a unique place to be on that Sunday, the day after, through that following Wednesday. So I will. I can't believe it that it's been 20 years, for one. But watching any time they do the ceremony where they're reading the names and all of that, it's just so stinking sad. And just those people were just at work, doing their thing and probably thinking about what they were going to have for dinner that evening with their family or what meetings they had on the schedule and then boom.
Don MacPherson:
You're a father now since we last spoke. Your daughter was born a month or two after we met. How has being a father changed your perspective on life?
John Kriesel:
I was a stepfather in my first marriage so I learned a bit through that. It is different this time and it might be because I'm 39 now. Above 30 I feel like, or above 35 even, I feel like it's such a great time to be a parent because career is usually settled in, life is settled in. I feel like I'm a much more patient, calm person. So seeing her, it makes me young again. I feel like I see just how excited she is about stuff that we consider mundane and walking in the door and having her so excited to see me. This morning I had a prosthetics appointment and so I was going into the office late. And so because of that, I took her to daycare and normally my wife does that and picks her up because she works part-time.
And so I hung out with her a little extra and we read some books and she just was extra cuddly. Was so excited about the waffle that she's had many of, but this morning she told me that it was super good and she loves waffles and it made my morning. It made just all that. She gave me a hug and she kept rubbing the back of my head as she was hugging me and was excited when I brought her to daycare, excited to see her friends. And it was one of those days where I have a very busy day at work today. And so I got up and I was in business mode and that little girl made me forget about all that and just really enjoy the morning and the time with her. And now my whole day I'm like, I can't wait to see her tonight.
In a weird way, seeing her and having been through everything I've been through in my life, I feel like I appreciate her more now than I would have if I had her in my twenties, when we think we know everything and we don't. We don't know a thing for the most part. We just think we do. It is just the greatest blessing that I've ever had in my life. She makes my heart so full.
Don MacPherson:
I can tell, I can tell.
John Kriesel:
I'm obsessed with that little kid.
Don MacPherson:
Has being a father changed your perspective on your service at all?
John Kriesel:
Yes. I was at an event yesterday, a Tee It Up for the Troops event and they honor service members and they have a ceremony to honor the fallen. And they had the parent of someone who was lost in combat lay a wreath at the base of this memorial with the rifle and the boots and the helmet. And I can't imagine now what it would be like to say goodbye to your child. To think of Chloe at some point joining the military. Now, if she wants to, I'll support it and she will understand what can happen when you serve, but my goodness, I would be so afraid. And you're just again, helpless, because you've got to trust their training and you've got to trust the people surrounding them and trust that they'll make it back okay.
But yeah, it's changed me and I think as we get older and we look back and just that protective part that I'd never want my daughter to have to see the things that I've seen in my life. And so hoping to teach her about those without her having to go through it. But yes, I want her at the very end to know that I did everything I could not only for her and for our family, but for this country. And that's something I know I will never regret is that I did everything I could.
Don MacPherson:
You have, John, and I'm so proud to know you and just following you on social media, the way you live your life, the level of happiness and the perseverance that you have is just admirable. And I'm grateful that you're an amazing father. That's evident. And I want to thank you for your service. You're a great American and I'm so proud to have you as a guest here and again, thank you before for being a genius.
John Kriesel:
I appreciate it, sir. Thanks again for having me.
Don MacPherson:
Thanks for listening to 12 Geniuses. Later this week, I will share my own personal reflections on the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the weeks, months, and years that followed it. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a genius.