Editor's note: This story originally appeared in the Sept. 20, 2008, issue of Golfweek.
Pete Phipps was in the pool when the first plane hit. The West Point freshman, weighed down by heavy gear, was coming out of the water during a survival-swimming class Sept. 11, 2001, when someone ran in to deliver the news that would change a nation.
Phipps had been at the U.S. Military Academy all of two months when the World Trade Center towers fell.
“When those planes hit the Pentagon, you knew damn well (we were going to war).