Awaiting the Call to Arms

When Bandit, a trucker who wishes to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the U.S. Army’s Special Forces, chose not to re-enlist in the U.S. Army, he knew there was a chance he could be called back into military action. He served in the Army’s Special Forces demolition team during the Desert Storm/Desert Shield campaign.

Bandit, 36, has trucked on and off for 17 years, and since leaving the military he has spent the last 11 years on the road. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Bandit felt the worst was coming. The Army soon called him back into action for a week because of his previous demolition experience.

He returned home to New Haven, Conn., on Sept. 19, and spent the next day driving Army trucks while delivering two loads of blood to the train station in New Haven. The blood was then shipped to the American Red Cross in New York.

Bandit was on standby in anticipation of being called up again. He doesn’t mind serving his country, and says the attack on America wasn’t a surprise to him.

“The attack is an atrocity,” he says. “I feel it’s been coming for a long time. For the American public and the government to feel that we’re safe and to feel nothing could happen here on American soil was na