Professor Fred Hoffman, Intelligence Studies at Mercyhurst University, recalls being right in the middle of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"I worked in the intelligence community for 30 years and I only worked in the Pentagon for 10 days, the 10th day was 9/11," Hoffman said.

From inside the Pentagon, Hoffman and his team watched the first two planes hit the World Trade Center.

"When the first plane hit people were speculating that it was a small aircraft or it was just an accident and then two aviators said no that is not an accident, with a restricted airspace you do not just run into the World Trade Center then when the second plane hit, everybody knew," Hoffman said.

As Hoffman survived the attack on the Pentagon, watching New York City get hit not once but twice hit close to home.

"Born and raised in New York City, I lived in the Bronx until I was 15 then I moved out to Long Island before I went to college, I had been to Windows on the World and the World Trade Center, it was a punch in the heart," Hoffman said.

After the attacks Hoffman was then deployed to Afghanistan to fight for his country, following in the footsteps of his father who served in World War II.

"For that generation it was 12/7/1941, everybody knew where they were, what was going on, what happened and for us it was 9/11 and for what not only happened on 9/11, which I think transformed the U.S. government with agencies that didn't exist before 9/11, it also fundamentally reshaped who we are, how we think and how we do what we do literally on a daily basis," Hoffman said.