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>> I'm Matthew Begay,
Special Agent,

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement
and Homeland Security

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Investigations, HSI Chicago,
stationed in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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So 9/11 for me,
was quite a surreal experience.

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I was quite
a different experience for me

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compared to most
of my coworkers

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because I was only
eight years old at the time,

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but it was just a normal day.

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I got up when my mom
came in my room and woke me up

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and told me to get ready for school,
went downstairs, watched some TV,

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ate my breakfast
and hopped on the bus

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to Pittsboro
Elementary School.

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And it was a normal morning.
We just were doing our morning work

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and just nothing really
out of the ordinary.

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I mean, I sound like
a broken record saying that,

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but it was just a very normal day
until my teacher,

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decided to turn on the TV.

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And when he turned on the TV,
he was flipping through several channels

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until he got
on the news channel. And on

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there was a large building
that was on fire,

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and it wasn't just
a little fire.

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It was quite a significant fire
like an explosion occurred.

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And we knew it was
pretty serious

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because very rarely did
he turn on the TV

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he had on the room and or, excuse me,
had in the room.

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So I'm not really sure
what was going on,

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but we continued our morning work
and just went on with our day

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and as 10 minutes or so passed,

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we got more fixated on the TV
looking into what was going on.

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But eventually we had to turn
our attention towards our class

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and we were getting ready
to go to that.

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And as we were lining up
ready to exit the door,

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I hear my teacher go,
Oh my God.

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And I hear somebody scream
down the hallway.

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We all turn to the TV and we see
the second tower on fire.

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And it wasn't an on fire fire.
It was like an explosion,

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like a missile hit it
or some kind of large plastic explosive

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just went off in the building.
It was significant.

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And at that moment, my teacher,
he was always this really jovial,

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positive guy,
always with a smile on his face, and

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he didn't have a smile on him
that moment,

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it was a real somber expression,
and he looked pretty scared.

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And that's something
I've never seen him do before.

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And as the day went on, I realized
this was not an ordinary accident

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that some people
who really hated us did this.

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And my dad was in the army for 20 years.
Special operations.

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I had heard of Iraq and Iran
and Saudi Arabia.

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When I got home and I found out this
was coming from that part of the world,

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I wasn't surprised because my dad
had told me stories about them

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and unfortunately
that's where a lot of people

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who hate America happened
to come from.

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Like I said, this was no accident,
this was intentional,

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and it was at that moment I knew
I had to do something.

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At a very young age, in the third grade,
I was like, I was going to join the army.

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I wanted to do that
by my dad's like,

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No, I don't want you in the army,
you have options.

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So go to college.

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And if you decide, then you want to
go in the army, that's fine.

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But go through college first.

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So as I got older and as I got
a little bit more more knowledgeable

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about how the government works
and all the different agencies,

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they shifted from the army
more towards the intelligence side,

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specifically the CIA or NSA

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or another domestic
or international intelligence group.

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And I quickly gained
an interest in that.

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But as that continued,
that interest continued.

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It started opening new doors for me,

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and I realized that wasn't quite what
I wanted to do, as it wasn't really.

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How were they portrayed in the movies
as being, you know,

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some kind of a super spy, James Bond,
Jason Bourne style activities,

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and I wanted to do something
a little bit more hands on.

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So that's when I started gravitating
more towards the FBI or DEA

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or this new group I had heard
of called Homeland Security.

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And as I continued throughout
my teenage years into young adult years,

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I kind of shifted away
towards the government dream.

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I started gaining more interest
and wanted to do other things.

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But, I don't know when it was exactly,
but midway through college,

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I kind of threw my arms up and said,
What am I doing?

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I don't want to do this.
I want to do what I originally did.

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I want to do something
in the government.

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And so I renewed my interest
in Homeland Security,

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and as I completed my undergrad
and went to grad school,

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I started looking at jobs within
the Department of Homeland Security

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and got a few offers
actually accepted one

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with the U.S. Secret Service,

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but decided it really wasn't
the career path I wanted

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because all in all,

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I wanted to go back to the Department
of Homeland Security.

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And specifically, at that time
it was Homeland Security Investigations,

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and that's when I knew
that's what I want to do.

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I'm going to make it my mission
to do Homeland Security Investigations.

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And I sacrificed a lot.

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Left the Secret Service
midway through

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and waited a year
and a half to get this job.

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But here I am today
and I have no regrets.