Eleven months in

Dion McGill had been in the Illinois Army National Guard for 11 months when the attacks came. He lives in Englewood and is now 47.

The morning after his birthday

He had turned 22 the day before and taken Sept. 11 off. His sister told him to turn on the TV, and they watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

Then the other two

Reports followed of a third plane striking the Pentagon and a fourth going down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

A shift you could feel

McGill knew instantly the country had changed. What he could not know was the shape that change would take, or how much of it would land on him.

“You could feel the seismic shift almost immediately. Obviously, the world is different. You just don't know how different.”

He joined for tuition

McGill signed up after running out of money at Western Illinois University, where he eventually dropped out. The Guard was a way to pay for school.

Sandbags, he thought

His expectations of Guard duty were small and local, the kind of service that never leaves the state.

“I thought I would fill sandbags if there was flooding, maybe help a lady or two across the street.”

An $8,000 bonus

He finished basic just before 9/11, but his job training was delayed nearly two years. The specialty he picked: limiting deaths in a nuclear, biological or chemical attack.

Diverted days before Iraq

In 2004 his unit was set to deploy to Iraq, then was sent to Germany instead, days before departure. Troops who already knew the region were going in their place.

“A lot of soldiers were being killed.”

Relief, then Afghanistan

He spent 15 months in Germany, relieved to support the war from a distance. In 2008 his unit deployed to Afghanistan anyway.

What he brought home

A fractured hip, a bad back, PTSD, nasal polyps and sleep apnea, plus memories he never wanted.

“A host of stories and memories I could have easily done without in this life.”

Josh will always be 21

McGill finished his degree at Saint Xavier University in 2010. Several friends never came home, and he still wonders about the lives they would have had.

“One thing my mind always wraps around is this idea that Josh will forever be 21. Jason will always be this mid-20s guy.”

A sense of duty

The war left him fearless and resolved, and it pointed him toward the work he does now as a counselor in Englewood.

“I came home with a sense of duty that has permeated the fabric of my life ever since.”

Guilt he refuses to live in

He gets disability pay for PTSD and has found therapy useful, but survivor's guilt never left. He tries not to let it become the way he remembers his friends.

“You fall into that rabbit hole of guilt and sorrow, and that's not how I want to honor their memories.”

170,000 pages of records

Days before the 25th anniversary, New York City released more than 170,000 pages on post-9/11 air quality and the city's response, reopening old questions.

The brothers who went

Jim and Pat Maloney, Chicago brothers, rushed to help at Ground Zero in 2001. Jim, 72, was a Chicago police lieutenant for over 35 years and now needs an inhaler for a cough he never had before.

Cancer, and no regrets

Pat, 65, a retired Chicago Fire Department battalion chief, was treated for cancer. Both brothers are enrolled in the World Trade Center Health program.

“It's not about self-preservation. We show up at a scene that's very dangerous and hazardous, and we gotta put calm to some chaos.”

Seven firefighters came to Chicago

The brothers stayed in touch with the responders they met in 2001. Seven New York firefighters flew in for Pat's last day on the job. Jim says he would absolutely do it again.

“I wish we could have done more.”