In the Spring of 2013, Peter Findler invited his good friend and Army Pilot John Hamilton to come to talk with his students about "the service." After speaking, Peter invited John to stay for afternoon classes, and it just so happened that this was a day that Peter’s students were learning about the events of September 11th, 2001. Many students were eager to hear about John’s memories of that day, and soon the class turned into an impromptu interview for an upcoming 9/11 oral history assignment.

This experience planted a seed that showed Peter and John how gathering veterans to tell stories of 9/11 holds great promise. The following year, John recruited a team of Veterans to build upon that first conversation from the Spring of 2013 with a field trip and small group interviews at the National Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  

Since then, Peter and John have facilitated numerous small group discussions and expeditionary learning experiences for hundreds of students from Washington, D.C. and Virginia.