 We're 15 years into America's longest period of conflict, and soldiers are still deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq. It's easy to forget that the front line extends from the mountains of Afghanistan to the skyscrapers of New York City. For many Americans, the Big Apple is a place to visit, but for some, it's home. There's smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center. Sean, what happened next? You know, you've never seen anything like that in the world before. It's like the east side, and it blows into the building with the flames. One day, everything that was New York changed. Good evening, I'm John. And the threat continues to be a reality. And confusion right now in Manhattan after an explosion in Chelsea. That guys only have to be right once. We can be right 999 times, but that one time we're wrong, you know, a lot of people can die. I left for Port Meade, Maryland, and began our drive to New York City. I haven't been back to the city since 2014, when I was stationed at Port Hamilton. I was on a special duty assignment, still on active duty. I didn't wear the uniform day-to-day, and my main transportation was the subway. And every once in a while, I would see a soldier, and I would have to go up to them and just kind of shake their hand and kind of talk about the Army a little bit. But the one thing that I've always wondered, what are they doing here? These soldiers are with the New York National Guard and join Task Force Empire Shield. For the next few days, I'm going to get a chance to embed with these guys and find out what it takes to protect America's biggest city. If someone didn't know, why is there a soldier in the middle of the train station? We get that question many times, as we all know, New York City is the number one terrorist target in the world. It's the financial capital of the world, it is the cultural capital of the world. But we're there to deter and detect terrorism, and we're there as the call of the governor. And this Task Force works together with other agencies to accomplish its mission. Everybody from Department of Homeland Security, NYPD counterterrorism, Port Authority police, Samtrak police. But we're always in the loop on what's going on in the planning stages and of course in the execution stages with our partner agencies here in the city. Which is something you would never have prior to September 11, 2001. So I mean, the advantage is that these soldiers most of them live in New York City? That's correct. The vast majority of Empire Shield soldiers either grew up in the city or right outside the city. So they have a vested interest. They're projecting in their backyard, their families, their friends, you know, the way of life that they remember. Sergeant Vega, a native New Yorker and former New York City police officer, has been on the Task Force for three years. So again, this is our Penn Station. This is one of the main hubs that we patrol here for the Joint Task Force Empire Shield. Yeah, I heard it's one of the busiest places in New York City. One of the busier places in New York City and the reason for that is from one side of Penn Station, you have the Long Island Railroad. All the folks coming from Long Island into the city to come to work as you can see. And from the other side of the station, you have what's called the Patrick. Those come from Jersey. How many people, how many soldiers do we have on the ground here? Roughly. Every day you have an average between 15 to 20 soldiers spread out through the station. And of course, we're trained to look for certain things. Here, if you work here long enough, you know what we call work noise. You're used to a certain type of noise every morning. Like a baseline? A baseline of people coming in. So, you know, we listen for things, we look for things. You automatically hear it, you feel it, and somebody will come and tell you, hey, there's something going on over there, something going on over there. After work, Sergeant Vega invited us to his home in Chelsea where he lives with his wife and two kids. We sat down with his wife, Theta, to find out what it takes to be an Army spouse. When you met him and he told you, I'm in the Army, what did you think? He wasn't only in the Army, he was also in YPD. So you get both worlds, and it's like, okay, so as in YPD, he's in the streets, anything can happen to him any day. And then in the Army, the fact that he can get called to go away any day or any time. So, it's kind of nerve-wracking. What worries you? Well, one of the concerns I have is, like, he's always gone one year for a home month. Out of the year, he's gone a home month, which is actually happens to fall on our daughter's birthday. So he misses her birthday every year. Every year? Every year. And now that she's older, she actually questions him and says, why can't you at least not go one time to spend his birthday with us? So... How old is she? She's 11. What do you guys tell her? She understands that he's in the military and that he needs to go for training in the event so that he's prepared for any tragedies that may happen. But as a child, you really don't always understand. You have to support them and what they want to do. And I support him 100%. It's just heart of the family. Sergeant Bagan and his family are one of many who defend New York, and their backgrounds are as diverse as the city itself. You're planning to do this forever, huh? Until they kick me out. My mom brought us to this country when I was a teenager. And we struggle a lot. And I thank God the opportunities that this country has offered me and my brothers are endless. And that would have never happened in my country. So I'm thankful and grateful for that. Before leaving the city, we had to make one last stop at the 9-11 memorial to visit a guy who made an impact on me. The first time I saw this guy, he had an old rag in his hand, and he was cleaning the memorial dedicated to the firefighter who lost their lives. Have you done rolling? You call me a broad chaser and a man. And I thought he was talking to himself, but the closer I got, I realized that this guy had a message. Seven days in a week, seven letters in New York, seven points in Miami's crown, seven continents can be found, seven red stripes in the American flag, seven buildings the World Trade Center had, not just two towers. Everybody's got a story to tell. The 9-11 affected all of us in different ways. America's a melting pot, a gumbo soup. You don't see it? Please let me help you. The whole world saw those pictures, but in reality, those pictures did no justice as to what this place looked like. September 11, 2001, Tuesday. First week of school, New York from Jersey, Connecticut. Primary Tuesday. I was actually, I worked at the New York Pioneer. All the smoke was coming up to 14th Street. You could smell it. And from that moment on, I just picked up and I left. I was like, I need to go pick up my son from school. It beats like this. Dedicated to those who fell, that's the past. And to those who carry on, they're the future. May we never forget all day some and some gave all. It really changed many of us. History, don't live in mystery. Some will listen, some must learn. Is there a silver lining to this whole thing? Yes. We're bigger, we're better, we're stronger, we're more modern, we're more educated, we're more savvy when it comes to how to deal with terrorism. And overall, we've just become a better city because of it. It's been 15 years since 9-11. It's changed everything. But with the strength of these soldiers and the resiliency of the people of New York City, I can't wait to see what comes next.