Army Lt. Col. Ben Gillespie was just a teenager when he decided to join the Ohio National Guard as a high school senior in 1999.
“I had two motivations,” he said. “I had family history. A lot of my family had served in the military, especially the Ohio Guard, and then also at the time, the state of Ohio was giving something like 60% cover for in-state tuition. So to pay for college was a big motivator for me.”
Then, as a young cadet in Ohio State’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program, the Sept. 11 attacks happened one week before he started his sophomore year of college.
“I was on the fence of whether I was going to contract and stick with it,” he said. “And from that point, I knew that I wanted to not only contract into ROTC and become an officer, but I also wanted to go on active duty.”
For him and many of his fellow cadets, the attacks were a turning point.
“The overwhelming majority were there because of 9/11, and their motivations to go on and serve on active duty military were because of 9/11.”
After completing his training in 2005, Gillespie served five overseas tours of duty in the global war on terror, including time in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, he runs the ROTC program at Weber State University, with extensions at Utah State and Idaho State.
But 25 years after 9/11, the attacks aren’t even a distant memory for new cadets. They’re something they’ve only heard about from family, friends or history books. Gillespie said the two biggest reasons to join for his students now are not unlike his in 1999: family history in the military and help paying for college.
“The motivations have changed a bit, but they're still kind of the same,” he said. “There's less of ‘I'm joining because of what's going on around the world,’ and more of support for college to pay for tuition and things like that.”
Gillespie said about 95% of his cadets take advantage of tuition help, either through ROTC scholarships or Utah National Guard tuition assistance. But even though the motivation to serve because of the Sept. 11 attacks may have waned, that doesn’t mean joining the military is unpopular.
Gillespie has seen his program grow from just over 30 cadets two years ago to “the precipice of crossing over the 100 cadet mark.” He points to growing economic uncertainty stemming from trade wars, tariffs and the ongoing war with Iran driving up global fuel costs as a possible reason for more interest in enlisting. As the economy struggles, he said, “the one organization that usually benefits from that is the military.”
Nationally, military leaders say recruitment hit a 15-year high this year. According to the armed forces’ own data, pay, education and work skills top the reasons for joining.
The Utah National Guard is riding that same wave.
Lt. Col. Tambra West joined the National Guard shortly after 9/11 and said a surge in patriotism strongly motivated her and many of her peers, but in basic training there was still a healthy group enlisted for other reasons. Even for her, beyond a sense of patriotic duty, the financial assistance for college was a big plus.
“There were just as many that joined for family, that joined for benefits, for education, to take care of family,” West said. “And we see a lot of those reasons coming forward into today, where maybe there isn't that prominent reason, that moment of impact that might have resulted in a surge, but we see similar themes.”
West said the Utah National Guard is doing great when it comes to recruitment. It even stood up a new unit last year and, she said, currently sits at 137% of its recruiting goal for the 2026 fiscal year.
“We've been able to fill our infantry unit really fast,” she said. “I think faster than predicted because there was so much excitement within our state and communities, and even surrounding states, for people to want to come join that unit.”
She attributes that excitement to benefits and new roles opening up for National Guard members that previously weren’t available. While most who join today are too young to remember 9/11, the desire to serve in Utah is still strong.
For West and Gillespie, even though the events of Sept. 11, 2001 are now a quarter-century in the past, they are clear-eyed in knowing something similar could happen in the future.
“There will be some catastrophic or world-changing event that will drive motivations to serve,” Gillespie said. “It just remains to be seen what that event will be.”
“Obviously, we pray that we don't have those moments of impact that 9/11 had on a huge generation of us,” West said. “There will likely be something. Who knows what that might be in the future? But I pray that we can all come together, regardless, to continue to protect freedom and the service.”
