Sept. 11 Sweeps Hopkins Grad Into War on Terror

was a 20-year-old student at the University of Minnesota Duluth when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. The Hopkins native heard the news from his roommate and continued getting ready for class.

“The full effect of what 9/11 was really hadn’t hit yet,” he said.

Rogness would come to understand the impact better than most. Although he planned to become a physical education teacher—punching his card in the reserves as a chaplain’s assistant for the required six years—in late January Rogness became one of the first Minnesota reservists called up to deploy to Afghanistan.

He went to Fort Snelling, where television crews crowded around to film the first wave of soldiers heading off to war. Then Rogness went to Fort McCoy, WI, to be issued equipment.

Rogness’ home unit was the 457th Transportation Battalion, but the army transferred him, on paper anyway, to the 100th Chaplain Detachment. He was paired with a chaplain he never met and then sent to Bagram Airfield, arriving there the same day as the 10th Mountain Division headquarters.

“We landed with boots on the ground running,” he said.

Rogness was only a few weeks removed from college, but the military was ramping up for Operation Anaconda—a massive effort to clear Taliban and al-Qaeda forces from Afghanistan’s Shahi-Kot Valley.

Rogness was stationed with a forward surgical team on Bagram during the operation. He still recalls wondering was going through the minds of 101st Airborne Division soldiers preparing to board twin-rotor Chinook helicopters even as casualties from the battle started to arrive.

“It’s just kind of chaos of the mind,” he said. “Looking back, it was very eye-opening. I didn't understand the full ramifications of what I was involved in.”

But Rogness’ time in Afghanistan changed his own career path. He worked with officers and noncommissioned officers over there who instilled in him strong values and a motivation to “reach higher and climb the ranks" instead of getting out as soon as possible.

“After I had gone there, I felt I had a hand, I had a responsibility, in helping with this war,” he said.

A decade after 9/11, Rogness is still in the military, currently a chaplain’s assistant with the Active Guard Reserve serving in the office of the chief of chaplains.

“It was a turning point in my life and career. It brought me places and took me places I never would’ve imagined,” Rogness said.

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Be sure to check out the joint project by Patch and Huffington Post, "Touched By Terror: Patch Remembers 9/11 in 911 Snapshots." Or check out these stories of how Minnesotans were affected by 9/11:

Apple Valley:
Eagan: Eagan Resident Mike Ferber Hopes Memories of 9/11 Won’t Fade
Edina: Retired Army Vet Spurred to Re-Enlist Following 9/11 Attacks
Fridley: Demand Soared for Speakers on Islam after 9/11
Golden Valley:
Hopkins: and
Inver Grove Heights: VFW Commander: Sept. 11 Changed the Country
Lake Minnetonka: Remembering Wayzata Native Gordy Aamoth
Lakeville: Lakeville VFW Post Manager's Wife Working at Pentagon on Sept. 11
Minnetonka: 9/11 Memories From a Former New Yorker
Mendota Heights: Retired Mendota Heights Pilot Recalls ‘Paradigm Shift’
Northfield: Northfielder Will Never Forget His Birthday in Iraq
Oakdale: Terror and Joy Came Together for Oakdale Family
Plymouth:
Richfield: 9/11 Aftermath: Richfield Couple Waits for Possible Deployment
Rosemount:
Roseville:
Shakopee:
Southwest Minneapolis:
St. Louis Park: 9/11 Attacks Made Being Muslim ‘More Difficult’
St. Michael:
Stillwater:
Woodbury: