His sister, Erica, who is three years older, joined the Air Force after high school, served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now is stationed in Guam. When his sister served in the war zones for a year, Biter said, he worried a lot about her: "With a sibling overseas, fighting in a war, it's never comfortable." But he said he was proud that "she wanted to serve her country and help protect us at home and abroad."
After the 9/11 attacks, there was a sharp rise in support for the military among American college students, according to researchers. In surveys by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute, 45% of college freshmen in 2002 advocated more military spending, the highest percentage in two decades. That fell to 28% in 2008, after years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and no more major terrorism at home.
Over the same decade, students showed a greater interest in exploring the world and less fear of travel abroad. In 2002, about 21% of freshmen nationwide said they would probably study abroad, a figure that had jumped to 31.5% by 2010.
At a young age, people were confronted with media images of the world that left them wanting to learn more, particularly about the Islamic world, said Mahmoud Al-Batal, a Middle Eastern studies professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
"They are trying to understand why 9/11 happened. And they want to know what went on in the minds of the people who committed this heinous crime," Al-Batal said.
Growing up in a remote part of Vermont, Faryn Borella did not feel personally threatened by terrorism. But she grew fascinated by the wider world after 9/11. Now a 19-year-old freshman at Occidental College who is studying diplomacy and world affairs, she is considering a career in international law.
"I want to try to stop this cycle of anti-Americanism and Islamophobia," she said. "It is important to break the cycle in the future."
She worries that all the celebrating may lead to retribution by terrorists. "It's OK to be happy, but to storm the White House and Times Square and cheer may not be the best way to react," she said.
Jason Lifton, the 22-year-old student body president of George Washington University, attended the Sunday night rally outside the White House and said it was more about marking a historical moment than celebrating a man's death.
Photos: Osama bin Laden dead
It was "a group of people who wanted to be together to celebrate America," Lifton said.
Many of the same students, he said, had partied at the same place when Barack Obama won the presidency.
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