SFC Buswell, a decorated soldier, is by numerous measures a patriot who willingly and regularly risked his life in service to the United States. Unfortunately, the United States Army did not see it that way.

On that August day in 2006, Buswell received an e-mail which claimed to refute the "liberal" idea that a jet aircraft cannot vaporize. The e-mail’s author intended to support the 9/11 Commission’s claim that the plane which hit the Pentagon on 9/11/2001 literally atomized. It was sent to 34 people in the compartmentalized information facility at Ft. Sam Houston. Its allegation was not one Buswell could let pass unanswered.

His response, found in The Iconoclast’s first story about SFC Buswell – published Aug. 21, 2006 – refuted the allegation that airplanes can vaporize, and urged his fellow soldiers to support a new investigation into the attacks; to question the official story and "demand answers."

The next day, he was denied entry into his place of work. Soon thereafter, the Army informed him that he was under investigation. In the following days, he was fired from his job, demoted, ordered to undergo a mental health examination, and accused by Col. Luke S. Green, chief of staff at US Army North (Fifth Army), of "making statements disloyal to the United States."

Though under direct orders to avoid speaking to the media, Buswell’s story got out via his friends, family, and associates. The Iconoclast has since published three installations of his tale, and this reporter was contracted to retell the tale for Fort Worth Weekly, an alternative paper in North Texas, in May 2007. None of these articles quoted Buswell, as he was still in the military and still under orders of silence.

'The 9/11 NCO' Speaks Out