HOUGHTON -- It's hard to believe 10 years has passed since the terrorist attacks on our country.  9/11/01 was a day that tragically tore families apart, yet brought our country together.

They may be miles away from Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and the crash site at Shanksville, PA, but Michigan Tech's ROTC holds the tragedy of 9/11 close to their hearts.  Sunday morning, they hosted a memorial ceremony outside their campus headquarters.  Many have and will still fight the war influenced by the attacks.

"You look at how many people have been affected by it since that day; being a soldier, we've really been affected by the deployments," said Cpt. Barrett Newsom.

A 21-gun salute started the ceremony.  Those gun shots were some of the first and last sounds heard Sunday morning.  All was silent on campus.

The first plane struck the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., and at that same time Sunday, ROTC students raised and lowered a flag in traditional memorial fashion.  The flag itself, it was anything but traditional.  It was recently flown over Afghanistan by a Michigan Tech graduate, now in the U.S. Air force.

Breaking the silence at the ceremony was a voice wise beyond his years.  Sgt. Andrew Lund is a sophomore at Michigan Tech and a veteran Marine who served in Afghanistan.  He spoke of his connection to 9/11 and to the war that followed it.

"It's strange to witness an act of complete, unbridled hatred," said Lund.  "Personally, I'm not used to witnessing pure hatred.  It's not something we, as Americans or we as human beings, see everyday."

On that fateful day a decade ago, Lund was a high school freshman in a Washington, D.C. suburb, just a few miles away from the Pentagon.

"We heard a loud sound," Lund said.  "It shook the windows though and it shocked everyone."

With Michigan Tech attracting a diverse student body from across the country and the world, each student has a different story about where they were on 9/11/01, but they all shared one thing in common on the sober 10 year anniversary:  their patriotism.