After 9/11, Decorated Marine Mike Mendoza Knows We Are Not Untouchable

Every Sept. 11, Mike Mendoza is reminded that freedom isn’t free.

The 32-year-old k man spent a decade in the U.S. Marine Corps—1997 to 2007—and left as a decorated staff sergeant in the First Reconnaissance Battalion. He believes each anniversary of the attack should also be a gentle nudge that not only servicemen and women should be on alert.

"People think the U.S. is untouchable," he said. "But it's not. We bleed just like everybody else and we hurt just like everybody else."

Mendoza earned a Silver Star, Purple Heart and a Navy Achievement Medal with combat valor as a sniper during his service. He was deployed to Iraq three times as a Marine and thereafter has been sent several times as a contractor through the U.S. State Department. For more than three years after his Marine Corps service, he alternated spending 105 days deployed and 35 days home.

“My favorite part (of being a recon Marine) is knowing that I can do it,” he said. “You're an independent thinker … you work in small teams, five to 10-man teams, you’re amphibious and you’re a jack of all trades.”

He never wanted to be anything else, he said, and knew from a very young age what his future had in store — a paramedic, sniper, jump master, point man, communications specialist, infantryman and so much more.

“You learn to do everything,” Mendoza said. “The training is incredible. They just thrash your body.”

He recalled underwater long-distance swimming in full uniform, five-hour "ruck runs" and countless hours of other specialized challenges. He trained on his own for a year before entering recon school, he said.

“Some guys don’t do that,” he said. “But I had to train. It’s just how I am. I wanted to smoke it.”

In 2004, Mendoza organized and led five Marines across an open field in Fallujah, Iraq, and killed insurgents after his vehicle was hit with a rocket propelled grenade. His actions that day earned him the Silver Star.

He was awarded a Purple Heart in 2006 after a grenade exploded next to him, causing him severe damage to his stomach and lungs, as well as the loss of his spleen. Over the years, he's also been hit in the head with shrapnel that cracked his kevlar and required him to receive staples.

On the hometown front, he saved a woman in March 2005 outside the Target store in Orland Park. When he found her, she had suffered a seizure, wasn't breathing and had no pulse.

"It's called sacrifice," he humbly said, of his actions. "I've done what I was trained to do. It's who I am."

Mendoza now lives in Tinley with his wife, Kelly, and two children, Seth, 5, and Carli, 2.

He rides his prized Harley-Davidson Road King Classic that sports a custom paint job honoring his time in the Corps. The bike's turn signals—"85" on the left side and "41" on the right—represent his recon sniper specialty.

The quote, "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war," by William Shakespeare has also found its way onto the ride, along with emblems of his Purple Heart, Silver Star and Navy Achievement Medal.

After his service, he has , but is always looking for ways to keep busy.

"It’s really hard for an individual … when all they’ve done in the military is go go go go go, to come home and all the sudden it’s like a straight halt," Mendoza said. "I mean, I go stir crazy here all the time."

Mendoza is arguably more of a patriot than most. But if you run into him on the street, he'll be as humble as anyone.

"When people ask me, I always just say, 'I was a Marine,'" he said. "I don't get into it. I know what I've done. That's enough for me."

This is one of a series of 9-11 portraits assembled by the Patch network for 9/11: The Decade After, a special report for Huffington Post. Find more photos on the Action America Facebook page.

Like us on Facebook