09/14/2026
Here is a great story of our Post 9/11 Veterans including Matt Paterson from our museum ...
For area vets, ‘the mission continues’
https://tribune-democrat-cnhi.newsmemory.com/?publink=4c30b4232_1352253
“You see the price. You see the cost.”
‘Part of that generation’
Hauser, also a Marine, told the story of the conflict as a war correspondent, writing articles, taking photographs and filming videos.
He also worked as a media es**rt for visitors, including United Service Organizations performers, and set up interviews between military personnel and news outlets in their hometowns.
“It meant a lot to me to play a role in highlighting the awesome stuff and responsibility that America puts on our men and women,” said Hauser, who did two tours from 2005 into 2007.
Before the war, Hauser was in combat training at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on 9/11.
“I got, like, slapped in a machine gun nest and I didn’t even know how to work this equipment,” Hauser said.
“They’re like, ‘We’re going to show you now. If anything gets through that gatehouse, you just start lighting it up.’ ” He joined the military only a few months earlier, at age 24, shortly after the birth of his daughter, Jenna Hauser.
“I’m so glad that I did make that choice after my daughter was born to join the military and just be a part of that generation,” Hauser said. Jenna Hauser is now in the Air Force, preparing to become a staff sergeant in a few weeks.
‘Going through missions’
Paterson was a young man, digging ditches as part of his work as an electrician assistant, wondering what he was doing with his life.
He also wanted to help other people – as he saw happen when the community rallied in “inspirational” support of the nine men trapped in 2002 in the Quecreek Mine in Somerset County.
So in late 2004, he joined the Army, which offered a sense of “adventure,” as he described it, and a way to contribute to his nation.
Paterson, a combat sniper, spent 15 months in Iraq. He lost comrades and currently deals with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“The sacrifices that were made where we were at, at the time, losing friends, you don’t realize what that entails,” Paterson said.
The political and societal issues surrounding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were often complex and divisive back in the United States. But that was “thousands of miles away,” as Paterson explained.
“A lot of it is getting through the hour, getting through the minute, really,” Paterson said.
“You just take it hour by hour, minute by minute. You’re over there going through missions and doing your day-today activities. … You don’t know what the grand scheme of things is. You’re just that guy that needs to be on that corner or on that rooftop. You didn’t know about why.”
Dave Sutor is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 814-532-5056. Follow him on Twitter .
For area vets, ‘the mission continues’
https://tribune-democrat-cnhi.newsmemory.com/?publink=4c30b4232_1352253
[email protected] Two decades ago, Paul Anderson, Josh Hauser and Mat
