For Brian and David Santos it's all about 9/11.

11:01 AM EDT on Sunday, May 22, 2005

BY JOEL P. RAWSON
Executive Editor

SAMARRA, Iraq -- Identical twin brothers, Brian and David Santos, saw the towers of the World Trade Center burning from their home in Kearny, N.J. Today they are together in the 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment of the Rhode Island National Guard.

Journal photo / John Freidah

David and Brian Santos, from Kearney, N.J., sit on ammunition boxes at their base camp.

On Sept. 11, Brian had set his alarm to a music station to wake up in time for his English class at Rutgers University in Newark, where they were freshmen. Music came on the radio and then a news bulletin saying a plane had hit the World Trade Center. The news became more specific, saying the plane had been hijacked.

David was brushing his teeth.

The brothers went outside, where they could see smoke from the first tower. Kearny is 12 miles northwest of New York and on a hill. Brian would watch, go back inside to catch more news, then go outside again to watch.

Brian was outside watching when the second plane hit.

They went to school. Brian remembers it was "pretty hectic, pretty frantic. Of course it was crazy."

There were no classes. Students were in the school cafeteria watching TV when they saw the towers collapse.

"Everybody was running to the phones," David remembers. "Then they said the Pentagon was hit."

Brian remembers feeling excited, not knowing what was happening. "You think holy [expletive], there's people in those rooms. You think, what can I do to help?"

They learned that Antonio Rocha, a good friend of their sister, Carminda, was in the Trade Center. They went to the Hudson River to a booth for people looking for missing loved ones and signed in, but they knew there was little hope for Rocha, who worked on the 89th or 90th floor. Rocha did not survive.

On Wednesday the 12th, the Santos brothers and a couple of friends from school went to Jersey City, where they loaded food, water and blankets onto boats that ferried the supplies thto New York.

BRIAN HAD been thinking about the Army since the summer before college.

David wanted to be a police officer and thought the service would be good experience.

Brian liked the National Guard because be could be in the Army "and have my life. I don't regret the decision. So far, from what I've seen, it was a good choice."

They got to Rhode Island because they asked a friend of the family for advice. Brian was thinking of the Marines. Their friend was Staff Sgt. Thomas O'Hare, leader of Team 6 of the 173rd. "He told me about this unit," Brian said. "I interviewed, talked to the commanding officer, did the PT thing."

Brian and David volunteered together, joining the Rhode Island Guard in the spring of 2002. They and Specialist Tony Sousa of Lindhurst, N.J., commuted three hours to Rhode Island on the weekends. One would drive up, the other back. Tony and Brian bunk together in Team 6. David is in Team 3.

Why did Brian want something like long range reconnaissance? "Just wanted to do it right, I guess. I always had a taste for the infantry, jumping out of planes, going through the woods."

David said it's an advantage to have his brother with him. "Not everyone is fortunate to have that. I was thinking it wouldn't be as good an experience without him. We keep each other in check in the sense if something is wrong, we'll talk it out."

Brian said of David, "We're pretty close. We have the same likings."

NEWARK, N.J, has a large Portuguese-American community. Brian and David's parents moved there from Peniche, Portugal, in 1973 with the twins' older brother and sister to find a better life for the family.

Brian and David were born on Jan. 10, 1983. Asked who was born first, David says, "Depends on who you ask. It's a game my mom plays. It's a big joke."

They still have strong ties to Portugal. David lived there for a year and a half and speaks, reads and writes Portuguese as well as speaking Spanish. The twins are involved in Portuguese folk dancing and have performed for the governor of New Jersey.

Both Brian and David are devout Catholics. "The religious thing is a great outlet," David said. "It gives you a sense of faith, a sense of hope, of something better."

David said, "One thing that gets me upset is you'll see the news and all they'll show is the people who get killed."

"People are so selfish back in the United States. Here, you see people who have never brushed their teeth. They're worried about if their sheep will make it through the season. Over here it's real survival."

"Now males and females are going to school; hospitals with equipment that really works."

"They never show what's being built."

"Fighting an insurgency is really difficult," David said. "They have the advantage."

"They know who the bad people are but they won't tell you," David said of the Iraqis. "It's so frustrating. They have the power to make this work but they're not using it."

Of the insurgents, or anti-Iraqi Forces as the Army calls them, David said, "There's a better life for them if they'd just embrace it. Then we'd be out of here."

The best part of Iraq for David has been the children. "There's no hate in them yet. The only hate they'll get is from what they see, what they're taught.

"Hopefully, if we do this job right, we won't have to come back and fight them."

Digital Extra: Find more reports and photos from Iraq by Journal executive editor Joel Rawson and staff photographer John Freidah, on assignment with the 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment of the Rhode Island National Guard, at:

http://projo.com/extra/2005/iraq/rawson/