Airman: “These are the people I want to protect”

Among those on hand to pay his respects to the victims of 9/11 during Oceanside’s remembrance ceremony at the Schoolhouse Green was Elias Gomez, a 2013 Oceanside High School graduate who is now serving in the United States Air Force.

“September 11 was a big part of why I joined the military,” said Gomez, who was six years old on September 11, 2001. He lived with his family—parents Eduardo and Astrid, and twin brother Daniel, who is also in the Air Force—in a home near St. Anthony’s Church. He was touched by the series of funerals he saw at St. Anthony’s in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

“There was a funeral every other day,” he said. “I remember the fire trucks and flags. The more they dug, the more funerals there were.”

The Gomez brothers never forgot; they both enlisted in the Air Force out of high School. Elias, who throughout high school participated in the annual remembrance ceremony as part of the school’s marching band, is stationed at the Hill Air Force Base in Utah, where his duties include maintaining aircraft. He is on leave until later this month. Daniel, stationed in Oklahoma, couldn’t get away but was in Oceanside in spirit, Elias said.

“I was just a boy when 9/11 happened, but we’re all men now,” he said. Noting all of the children in attendance, including members of the Boardman Elementary School Chorus, who would later sing “We Will,” Gomez said, “These are the people I want to protect. They are the reason I joined the Air Force.”