It’s safe to say every American of a certain age remembers what they were doing when terrorist extremists struck on Sept. 11, 2001. For some, it drastically changed the trajectory of their lives. Callie Barr is the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District, but her road to politics was neither anticipated nor aspirational. A fifth-generation Traverse City and Cheboygan resident, Barr and her then-boyfriend Matt were high school students on that fateful day. Mere hours after the Twin Towers were hit, leaving Americans reeling in shock, Matt enlisted in the Marine Corps. He left for boot camp the day after he graduated from Cheboygan Area High School and later was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The couple married in-between tours when Barr was 18 and Matt was 19, and went on to move five times over 15 years. While Matt was in his second deployment, Barr graduated as valedictorian of her class at Cheboygan. She earned her secondary education degree from Central Michigan University and settled into the comfortable role of a high school English teacher. Their lives were upended when Matt returned from his tour with an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Even so, he knew he was one of the lucky ones.
