Morgen Jacobs was a high school senior when terrorists attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.
The young man who loved the beach and mountain biking had been unsure of what to do with his life. Within weeks, he came to his family with an announcement: He was joining the Army. His parents tried, without success, to get him to change his mind. In the spring of 2002, after graduating from Soquel High School in Santa Cruz, he enlisted.
Jacobs, 20, was killed Oct. 7, 2004, when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee while he was on patrol near Tikrit, Iraq, north of Baghdad.
Afterward, Todd Jacobs said he consoled his son's recruiter, telling the man: "Morgen chose this path because he was a patriot, and he loved this country to death and he wanted to protect all of us."
Since late 2001, The Times has chronicled the lives of more than 500 Californians killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their stories are collected in the California's War Dead database. Asked why their loved ones enlisted, family members recalled love of country, family tradition, the need to find direction or a lifelong fascination with the military.
For more than three dozen who lost their lives, as it was for Jacobs, the terrorist attacks were a driving force for serving. Here are a few of those stories:
Jeramy A. Ailes followed more than half a dozen of his friends into the military, all spurred by the events of 9/11. He chose the Marines, "the strongest and the best," his father said. Ailes, 22, of Gilroy, was among five Marines killed in an ambush in November 2004 in Fallouja, Iraq, west of Baghdad.
Edwin Roodhouse left a career as a computer networking engineer to join the Army at age 33. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, his family said he was determined to do something for his country after bouncing around in Silicon Valley jobs for a decade.
Three years after he enlisted, Roodhouse, 36, and another soldier were killed Dec. 5, 2004, when a homemade bomb blew up their Humvee in Habbaniya, Iraq, west of Baghdad.
Joseph B. Spence of Scotts Valley had put off his childhood goal of joining the Marines for several years because he was reluctant to leave his family. After the 9/11 attacks, he came to his parents and said, "I can't wait anymore; it's time to go."
Spence, who enlisted with his younger brother, was 24 when the military transport helicopter he was riding in crashed Jan. 26, 2005, near Rutbah, in Iraq, west of Baghdad. Twenty-nine other Marines and a sailor also were killed.
