Ten years ago, Americans were less than 48 hours away from watching the World Trade Center fall. In two days, nearly 3,000 Americans would lose their lives in the worst terrorist attack on United States soil.

Ten years ago, just days after the attack, Jesse De La Torre was having a conversation with his mother.

“What started all of this was 9/11 ,” said Raquel De La Torre, of her youngest child. “He started thinking he needed to save the country. It started when that happened.”

Then working in insurance, De La Torre said Jesse’s dream was to be a stockbroker on Wall Street.

“He said, ‘Mom, I would have died if I had been there,’” she remembered.

“Now I think they killed him anyway,” Raquel said.

Nine years ago, Americans were somberly remembering the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Nine years ago, Jacob Frazier — described as “outgoing and entertaining as hell” — had decided it was time to go full-time from his post in the Air Force Reserve.

“His six-year obligation was going to be up fairly soon, but after 9/11 , he committed to going full time,” his father Jim Frazier said.

Jacob was standing in the driveway at his St. Charles home while talking to his dad before he left for Afghanistan.

Frazier will always remember the last thing his son said before leaving.

“He said, ‘I’m going after these guys who were responsible for killing 3,000 people. I’m going to hunt them down.’ He had focus,” Frazier remembered. “In his mind, I know he thought he’d be the guy to put the bullet in (Osama bin Laden).”

Eight years ago, Jacob Frazier, part of a special forces team tasked with tracking bin Laden, was shot to death in Afghanistan at the age of 24. The oldest in a family of five, Jacob was the first National Guard member to be killed in the conflict.

“We were faced with all of these questions,” said Jim Frazier, himself an old Marine vet. “I knew he was going off to war, but there wasn’t any doubt in your mind that he’s going to come back.”

The father said he never grasped how dangerous Jake’s job was.

“He was a professional joint terminal tactical air controller,” Frazier said. “His job was to take them out.”

Eight years ago, Marine Capt. Timothy Ryan, a 1991 West Aurora High School grad, would become the second man from the Fox Valley to die in the post 9/11 conflict. Ryan was 30 when he died in a helicopter crash south of Baghdad.

“He was there to do the job that he felt had to be done,” his mother said, eight years ago. “He was very, very proud to be there.”

Eight years ago, Edwardo Lopez Jr. and Hector Ramos, once playmates at Aurora’s Oak Park Elementary School, would graduate from East Aurora High School.

After graduation, Ramos would enlist in the Marines.

Seven years ago, Jim Frazier, semi-retired from a job in the corporate world, was still reeling from the death of his son Jacob.

“What’s changed in my life since 9/11 ? Pretty much everything,” Frazier said.

After his son’s death, Frazier said he felt about as focused as Jacob had been on eliminating bin Laden: “I would have cashed in an IRA to pull the trigger myself.”

Instead, seven years ago, Jim Frazier became Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn’s senior policy adviser in military affairs.

Seven years ago, during a trip back from Marine boot camp, Hector Ramos would convince his old friend, Edwardo Lopez Jr., that the Marines would be a good fit for him, too, said Edwardo’s mother, Martha Lopez.

“(Edwardo) always said it wasn’t fair and it was evil what they (the 9/11 terrorists) did with our people,” his mother said.

Six years ago, Lance Cpl. Hector Ramos, a 20-year-old Marine, died in a helicopter crash in Iraq.

His younger brother, Lance Cpl. Noah Ramos, was in boot camp. His brother’s death didn’t deter his commitment to the military.

“He didn’t die for me to quit. He died for all of us,” said Noah Ramos, who went on to serve six months in Iraq.

Six years ago, Jesse De La Torre was finishing Marine boot camp.

“You have to enlist when they need you to,’” he kept telling me,” said his father, Aureliano De La Torre. “I didn’t agree — I didn’t think we were supposed to be in Iraq. But in the service, you don’t choose what’s right and wrong.”

Five years ago, Marine Pvt. Edwardo Lopez Jr. was killed in the al Anbar province of Iraq. He was 21.

“He said ‘If anything happens — you be proud of me. I didn’t die out there selling drugs. I died in the line of duty. Go to each event.’ And I go to each one,” said his mother.

“He wasn’t killed — I don’t say that. He went home to be with the Lord,” she said.

Four years ago, Lance Cpl. Jesse De La Torre, a 29-year-old Marine, lost his life in Iraq.

He would be the last of three East Aurora graduates, and Aurora Marines, to die.

His mother was working the third shift.

“It was a mother’s instinct. My mother had her first child and last child die. I suddenly felt like I was going to be the same,” said Raquel De La Torre.

Her granddaughter woke her hours later .

“I just started screaming. I just knew.” Raquel said.

Four years ago, Jesse De La Torre’s dad had a similar story.

“They asked me if I was Jesse’s father,” he said. “I asked why. They said ‘he’s been in an accident’ and my mind flew.”

He saw the men’s mouths moving, but he failed to listen. He imagined his injured son, and hoped his face was OK — that he’d been injured somewhere else.

‘I wondered to myself if he was even still in the hospital,” Aureliano De La Torre said.

“I never thought he was dead, so by the time they finished up the sentence — they said he died. I said it couldn’t be true because Jesse was such a good boy,” Aureliano said, crying.

Three years ago, Jim Frazier, Jake’s dad, would lead a crowd of thousands at Chicago’s Grant Park in the Pledge of Allegiance before the next president of the United States would take the stage. It was the night Barack Obama was elected.

Frazier has met many other power players in the years that followed his son’s death.

“All of those things, I continue to say the same thing. At first you get excited. But that’s not really why you’re here,” Frazier said. “It’s what we represent — to not forget the ultimate sacrifice that our children made. It’s not me (on that stage). It’s Jake.”

Three years ago, the families of three East Aurora Marines — the Lopez, Ramos and De La Torre families — would have a bridge, the Veterans Island Memorial Bridge on Illinois Avenue, named in their sons’ honor.

Two years ago, Martha Lopez would attend the Toys for Tots drive, also dedicated in her son’s honor, at Oak Park Elementary.

“I still have a picture of his preschool teacher and him standing in the door, first day of school,” Lopez said earlier.

“They haven’t forgotten,” she said. “Not only my own, but the men and women who are still out there.”

One year ago, then-17-year-old Juan De La Torre, Jesse De La Torre’s younger brother, was begging his father to let him enlist in the Marines. But to get the permission to enlist before his 18th birthday, his dad would have to sign off.

Aureliano De La Torre just couldn’t do it.

“For obvious reasons I didn’t want him to enlist,” Aureliano De La Torre said.

But after his 18th birthday, Juan was able to make the decision for himself. He chose to follow in his brother’s footsteps, although he insists that didn’t weigh on his decision.

Juan said he’s been contemplating the decision for seven years . He enlisted on July 1.

“I saw only the best of the best become Marines. (My father) raised me for as long as he could. But this is my dream,” Juan De La Torre said.

Would his brother approve?

“I’ll never know. It’s not like I can ask him now,” Juan said.

One year ago, time was still standing still for Martha Lopez.

“It’s like a movie and it just stopped when he died,” she said a year ago. “The longer you go, it feels the same.”

Martha Lopez kept a bedroom for her son covered in his awards, with his fatigues on the bed.

Every time the newspapers call, for 9/11 or some other occasion, it felt like it was starting again.

One year ago, Jim Frazier began working in survivor outreach services as a contractor for the Department of Defense.

He said he’s attended hundreds of military funerals since his son has passed.

“We can say things to each other that outsiders just wouldn’t understand,” Frazier said.

Today, families are healing.

Today, Raquel De La Torre talks to her son. There was something a woman told her after Jesse died.

“At first I thought how am I going to live?” Raquel said. “She told me — just look at your pictures. Go to their grave. Tell them you love them. I found comfort in that. I talk to him everyday. It’s beautiful.”

Today, Jim Frazier wonders what Jake would be like today. He’d be 33.

“I knew getting married and having kids was a big deal to him,” Frazier said.

And there’s reminders that fade with time, too — Jim said he used to be able to vividly hear his son’s voice. Today, it’s harder.

“God did not play a part in the bullet that struck him and killed him. There are no answers to the why. You are still sad. But you have to learn to accept it,” Frazier said.

Martha Lopez was unable to imagine moving on a year ago.

But today, where her son’s bed once stood, she now has a computer room. The fatigue wallpaper and awards still line the wall, but she admits it was time to change.

“It was time for me to move on. Time has moved very little for me. It’s one step only. Not many. Just one,” Lopez said.

A memorial to her son, a tattoo of his face, adorns Martha’s leg. Her husband has a similar one.

“But I’ll never forget him,” she said.

To date, more than 6,000 American soldiers have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.