Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords squeaked out a victory in the 2010 midterm elections. For her third race, the Blue Dog Democrat had faced a tea party candidate and veteran who had beaten a Republican state senator and had supported Arizona's controversial immigration bill. Giffords's seat had been in the "bull's-eye," as Sarah Palin put it, in the SarahPAC campaign target map.

Giffords resumed the Congress on Your Corner meetups, a concept created by Rahm Emmanuel that many had adopted since 2006. On January 8, she was greeting people at an event at a Tucson Safeway. Shortly after 10 a.m., a gunman shot Giffords and 18 others. The alleged shooter, then 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, had taken a 10-minute cab ride to the store.

Read more about the Arizona shooting in Top News

Shot in the head
Giffords was shot in the head at point-blank range. Six people, including a 9-year-old girl, died. Giffords survived -- but not without help. Daniel Hernandez, an intern who had been working for her for only five days, rushed to her side when he heard gunfire, according to the Arizona Republic. "It was probably not the best idea to run toward the gunshots, but people needed help," he told the paper.

When he reached Giffords, he held her in his lap and applied pressure to the entry wound on her forehead. He tried to keep her from choking on her own blood. He held her hand as paramedics wheeled her to an ambulance and accompanied her to the University Medical Center.

Once there, he was told that she had died. When he learned she was actually alive, he said he was "ecstatic."

Inspiration amid tragedy
So were many others across the country. Giffords's survival and ongoing recovery have been an inspiring counterpoint to violence and contention. The bitter divide over Arizona's immigration stance had led to boycotts, and the tragic shooting spree led one Arizona sheriff to call his state a "mecca for prejudice and bigotry." Sheriff Clarence Dupnik's comments enraged his peers, who criticized him for politicizing the shooting. Dupnik also laid out for Americans outside Arizona who Giffords was: a "nice human being ... who works from dawn to dawn, basically, and she cares about what really happens in this country. She's not about Democrats or Republicans; she's not about politics. All she cares about is the United States of America. And today I want to tell you I hope that all Americans are saddened and as shocked as we are."

When Giffords made a surprise appearance on the House floor in August for the debt-ceiling vote, an otherwise divided chamber broke into bipartisan applause. When she presented her astronaut husband with a medal during his retirement ceremony in October, Vice President Joe Biden praised the couple's "sheer, sheer courage."

The country continues to follow the progress of her recovery. In November, she spoke publicly for the first time when she appeared on ABC News, saying she needs to get better before she returns to Congress. She also released a memoir written with her husband, and on Thanksgiving, she helped serve a meal to military service members in her hometown. It was the first time she had met with constituents since the day she was shot.

She used only her left hand and spoke mostly one word at a time, both impediments a result of her injuries. But she did tell one service member: "Happy Thanksgiving; thank you for your service."

A former reporter for the Associated Press and ABC News, Laura E. Davis writes about gay rights and the Supreme Court. She is one of the social media editors for Yahoo! News. Follow her on Twitter at @laura_ynews.

Recruited from the elite Navy SEALs, members of Team Six go through even more rigorous training. They're trained to swim with their hands and feet bound and to jump out of planes, and they go on highly classified missions. We're not even really supposed to know they exist. But after May 1, 2011, we knew.

Risky raid in Pakistan
The raid on a compound in Pakistan was a risk. The SEALs from Team Six weren't even sure that Osama bin Laden was there -- the evidence that America's most wanted terrorist was in Pakistan was largely circumstantial. And they didn't know exactly who they might encounter. But they had a code name to signify that they had spotted bin Laden: Geronimo.

President Obama, who had just been delivering jokes at the White House Correspondents' Dinner the night before, watched the raid unfold from the White House with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. The mission to take out a man America had been hunting for more than a decade started with a glitch: One of the two helicopters flying into bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad crashed as it descended. But the SEALs carried on.

According to an account in the New Yorker, the troops encountered others who lived in the compound -- killing some of them -- before finding bin Laden on the third floor of the main house. A SEAL shot him once in the chest and once in the head. Then, into his radio, the SEAL said, "For God and country -- Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo."

Read more about the news surrounding Osama bin Laden's death

"Justice has been done"
Hours later, President Obama appeared on TV. "Tonight I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children," began his nearly 10-minute speech, which confirmed what many news outlets were already reporting. "Justice has been done," Obama declared.

In New York and Washington, D.C., where al-Qaida took so many lives on September 11, 2001, people gathered in the streets, waving American flags, cheering and chanting, "USA, USA!"

See what people wanted to know about Osama bin Laden after his death

Later that week, Obama flew to Kentucky to meet with some members of SEAL Team Six. He also met Cairo, the dog that accompanied the troops during the raid and the only team member whose identity could be revealed to the media. Obama and Biden presented the SEALs with the Presidential Unit Citation, an award given to military units.

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser who traveled with Obama to Kentucky, told the New Yorker that the president's visit with the SEALs was "extraordinary," saying: "They knew he had staked his presidency on this. He knew they staked their lives on it."

Just a few months after one of the SEALs' greatest achievements, a devastating loss struck the group when 22 SEALs were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. It was the deadliest day for U.S. troops during the 10-year war. Some of the dead were from Team Six, but none was on the raid that killed bin Laden. To us, they remain living mysteries.

A former reporter for the Associated Press and ABC News, Laura E. Davis writes about gay rights and the Supreme Court. She is one of the social media editors for Yahoo! News. Follow her on Twitter at @laura_ynews.

Four months after a devastating earthquake that killed more than 18,000 and left millions homeless, Japan's women's soccer team produced one of the most dramatic and uplifting triumphs of the year.

A message to supporters
Before and after each game at the Women's World Cup in Germany, the Japanese women charmed the crowds by unfurling a banner with a message to fans around the world, thanking them for rallying behind Japan in the troubled times that followed its brutal natural disaster.

It was widely expected that the Japanese team's involvement in the World Cup games would end as soon as it faced one of the bigger soccer powers. Japan, however, stunned Germany, its host nation and a tournament favorite, with a superb 1-0 victory in the quarterfinal, then brushed past Sweden to clinch a place in the title game.

The U.S. team, full of confidence and brimming with superstars like Abby Wambach and Hope Solo, waited for its turn. Most people predicted a comfortable win for the Americans.

Fighting to even the score
But when the U.S. missed a series of opportunities in the first half, Japan's confidence grew, and the team worked its way back into the game. Aya Miyama's strike with 10 minutes left leveled the scores and forced the final extra time. Once again, the U.S. positioned itself on the verge of victory, thanks to a headed goal from Wambach, but Japan fought back.

Homare Sawa produced a magnificent flick with the outside of her right foot from a corner kick, with just four minutes remaining. The final was headed for penalty kicks.

Uplifted, Japan cruised through the ensuing shootout when the stunned Americans missed their first three kicks. Cue tears of emotion from Japan's disbelieving players and mass celebrations back home.

"We knew that what we were doing here could be about a little more than just a football tournament," Sawa said. "If winning this makes one person, someone who lost something or someone or was hurt or damaged by the events that touched our country, feel better for even one moment, then we have really achieved a most special thing."

Yahoo! Sports general assignment writer/reporter Martin Rogers spent seven years as a soccer writer for the London Daily Mirror, covering the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, and international soccer. A journalism graduate from Harlow College, he is now based in Los Angeles and covers soccer, boxing, golf, and the Olympics.

Mike Meyer heard the call several times during 2011. He answered five times. Had it not been for personal conflicts, he would have been there more.

The 57-year-old retired General Motors worker from Mayville, Michigan, is one of thousands of American Red Cross volunteers who were deployed to a constant string of natural disasters across the United States this year.

Hundreds of relief operations, thousands of shelters
Few organizations felt the pressure of the year's extreme weather like the Red Cross. The organization launched 131 relief operations in 44 states between January 1 and mid-November. It opened more than 1,000 shelters, which provided 130,000 overnight stays to disaster victims; distributed 2.6 million blankets, coats, and other relief items; served 6.7 million meals and snacks; and provided 133,000 mental health and health services consultations.

Compare those stats with those of 2010, when the organization opened 37 shelters for 8,600 overnight stays, distributed 360,000 relief items, served 349,000 meals and snacks, and provided 14,000 mental health and health services consultations.

So, yes, in comparison to 2010, 2011 was a nightmarish year.

"Relentless year of disasters"
"We had a relentless year of disasters," said Anne Marie Borrego, director of media relations for the Red Cross. "What those numbers show is that neither [2010 nor 2011] was typical. Last year, we didn't have any multistate disasters. This year, it was one after another."

Read more about the year's extreme weather

The organization deployed 27,463 volunteers this year, including Meyer, an emergency medical technician. In April, he went to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where one of the most damaging tornadoes of all time had hit. In May, he went to the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, where tornadoes had struck .

Meyer deployed in June as a shelter worker to Minot, North Dakota, where flood waters chased residents from their homes. After a three-week stint, he returned home -- only to be called back to North Dakota for a second deployment, which also lasted three weeks.

In September, he responded to the Philadelphia area and assisted flooding victims after Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast.

"I'm seeing America one disaster at a time," Meyer said. "If there's a big disaster, I'm on my way."

Dwindling funds
While the series of disasters kept Meyer and other volunteers busy, it also dealt a blow to the Red Cross's funds, Borrego said. Typically, donations pick up during disasters, and that certainly was the case in 2011. The Red Cross appreciates all contributions, but this year the fundraising has not kept up with the need, she said.

The organization requires a steady stream of donations to be able to respond to the next tornado, hurricane, wildfire, flood, or other disaster. This holiday season, Borrego said, donors might want to consider the Red Cross Holiday Gift Guide and donate vaccinations, a day in an emergency shelter, or funding for other services and supplies.

Or, if they're like Meyer, they might want to volunteer. Meyer said he has three people lined up for volunteer training. And it's a very rewarding job, he added.

"It’s just people helping people," Meyer said. "Sometimes, all you can offer is a shoulder to cry on. You do what you can ... You're better off doing something than staying home and wishing you could do something."

Jeff Stacklin is the Cleveland editor for Yahoo! Local. Jeff has been an online and print journalist for the past 20 years.

On the night of February 11, 2011, more than 100,000 revelers filled Cairo's Tahrir Square to celebrate the ousting of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Among them was seasoned war reporter and CBS News's chief foreign affairs correspondent, Lara Logan, who was covering the rapidly changing situation in the deteriorating police state.

A "merciless" assault
It was her second trip to Cairo in as many weeks. Logan and her team had just endured a frightening ordeal: Egyptian soldiers had blindfolded them, marched them at gunpoint, and accused them of being spies. Now, on February 11, Logan suffered another nightmare: She was separated from her crew and sexually assaulted by a mob of 200 to 300 men. Logan was rescued by Egyptian women and soldiers who banded together to help her.

In April, Logan gave a detailed account of her attack in a "60 Minutes" interview with Scott Pelley. She told Pelley that she felt "so much stronger" now, and said that she did the interview to help break "the silence on what all of us [women journalists] have experienced but never talk about."

Her candidness was laudable, and many viewers praised her heroism. Not only was Logan strong enough to return (in February) to a struggling country where she'd been so recently traumatized, but she had the guts to share her harrowing experience with millions of viewers -- all in the name of exposing sexual violence toward women journalists.

The backlash
Though Logan's intentions were honorable, not all U.S. media outlets followed her respectful lead in how they covered the story. As per usual when it comes to stories about sexual violence and rape, some writers seemed to blame the victim (a disturbing trend that was itself a hot-button issue in 2011 -- see the SlutWalk protests). Some criticized Logan for her "Hollywood good looks," for daring to have an adventurous career while also raising a family, and for reportedly having an affair with a married man.

Despite the naysayers' groans, for many media watchers, the way Logan handled her ordeal exemplified journalism at its best. Her TV news colleagues offered words of support and solidarity. CNN's Anderson Cooper tweeted, "sickened and saddened by the attack on Lara Logan." NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, said Logan was "fearless, intrepid, smart and ... a lovely, kind person."ABC's senior national correspondent, Claire Shipman, said [Logan] "covers stories with a bravery and gusto that is terrific for women to watch ... Women like her and like Christiane [Amanpour] are critical role models."

As eye-opening as Logan's story was, though, it couldn't prevent more attacks on female journalists in the field. On November 25, Caroline Sinz, a French reporter for public TV station France 3, was allegedly violently assaulted by 70 men in Cairo. Other assaults were reported, too, and the group Reporters Without Borders urged international agencies to take extra precautions when sending female reporters to cover the demonstrations in Tahrir Square.

Laura Barcella is a freelance writer and a Yahoo! copy editor. She has written pop culture, news, arts, and lifestyle pieces for more than 40 publications, including Salon, the Village Voice, AlterNet, Elle Girl, Nylon, Time Out New York, CNN.com, Bust, and the Chicago Sun-Times. She's also the editor of the forthcoming anthology Madonna and Me, Madge-centric personal essays by women writers.

On September 8, 2009, an Afghan patrol and its American trainers entered Ganjgal Village and were ambushed by more than 50 Taliban insurgents. Bullets rained down from the surrounding mountains.  A mile away, then Corporal Dakota Meyer heard the attack and requests for help over the radio. Along with Staff Sargeant Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, Meyer requested permission to go into the firestorm to rescue his fellow soldiers.  Denied permission four times, Meyer and Rodriguez-Chavez defied orders and hopped into an armored Humvee. Rodriguez-Chavez took the wheel while Meyer manned the gun turret.

Over the course of six hours, they entered the valley five times to aid their fellow soldiers, continuing even after Meyer was wounded. His heroism, laying down cover and pulling individual soldiers out of the kill zone, resulted in the rescue of 36 people -- 13 Americans and 23 Afghans. During the six-hour battle, Meyer killed at least eight enemy combatants.

Highest award
For his heroic efforts, the Kentucky native was nominated to receive the Medal of Honor, the highest award that can be bestowed upon a member of the United States Armed Forces. Meyer would become the only living Marine to earn the award for actions in Afghanistan or Iraq. There have recently been questions about whether soldiers fighting in the Middle East since 2001 are being honored properly, as the number of those being honored pales in comparison to the number who were honored in previous wars.

Staff Sargeant Rodriguez-Chavez was given the Navy Cross for his heroism. In an investigation into the battle, three officers were reprimanded, with the report stating that "actions of key leaders at the battalion level were inadequate and ineffective" and noting the "poor performance of the commissioned officers who were present."

A soldier's requests
Meyer had a few requests when the White House contacted him about his nomination being approved. First, he asked if the White House could call back during the lunch hour of his construction job, as he wouldn’t get paid if he didn't work. Second, Meyer wondered if he could share a beer with the commander-in-chief, a request that President Obama honored outside the White House the day before Meyer's Medal of Honor ceremony.

Finally, Meyer asked that the award be accepted in the name of the five men who didn’t survive that day, acknowledging four soldiers who died during the ambush and a fifth who passed away from his injuries after the battle. On September 15, 2011, President Obama fulfilled an American hero’s request and honored those fallen soldiers:

"So today, we remember the husband who loved the outdoors -- Lieutenant Michael Johnson. The husband and father they called 'Gunny J' -- Gunnery Sargeant Edwin Johnson. The determined Marine who fought to get on that team -- Staff Sargeant Aaron Kenefick. The medic who gave his life tending to his teammates -- Hospitalman 3rd Class James Layton. And a soldier wounded in that battle who never recovered -- Sargeant 1st Class Kenneth Westbrook."

After nearly joining the New York Fire Department, Meyer has started speaking about his experiences in the military. He has another quest: to raise $2 million for the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation by its 50th anniversary, on May 28, 2012. Meyer calls the goal, fittingly, a Challenge to America.

Donations to the Dakota Meyer Scholarship can be made here.

Chris Wilson is an editor at Yahoo! who has previously been involved in team coverage of World Cup 2010, the royal wedding, and the September 11 Memorial page.

The world was on edge in the terrifying days following the Tohoku earthquake in Japan, as people watched the damaged Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Flashbacks to Three Mile Island's threat and the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe rippled online. Even as people researched the far-reaching effects of radiation and how it could affect the food supply, they admired the sacrifice of the engineers, many of them contractors, who worked day and night to forestall disaster.

The group's nickname came quickly enough: They were the Fukushima 50. Accounts differ, but the name may actually describe the number of people on a team. Of the 1,800-person workforce, about 130 technicians and 50 volunteers -- in white Tyvex jumpsuits, goggles, face masks, and dosimeters -- worked in shifts to stave off the damage of a meltdown that had already begun.

The Fukushima Daiichi power station shut down automatically at 2:48 p.m., and the emergency power came on as planned. The GE-designed plant had been tested to withstand a 7.9-magnitude earthquake, and it still stood after a record 9.0 temblor. As long as the fuel rods in its six reactors could be cooled, a meltdown wouldn't happen. The tsunami, however, swept through the plant's defenses and swamped basement-level pumps, which were essential for cooling spent fuel rods. Equipment failed. Confusion may have led to a worker shutting down reactor No. 1's cooling system, compounding the dangers.

Lifetime radiation levels
The average person receives a natural dose of two millisieverts per year from the sun and other sources. At 400 millisieverts of exposure, the Hindustan Times reported, white blood cells drop. At higher exposures come wrenching nausea, hair loss, and worse. A 5,000 millisieverts dose kills, but death isn't immediate: Chernobyl workers, some of whom experienced their skin slipping off, died over the course of months.

The No. 1 reactor's explosion released 1,015 microsieverts of radiation -- a level of exposure that a nuclear worker was allowed to face in a year, not in one day. Reactor No. 3 exploded, injuring 11. Then the cooling systems for reactor No. 2 failed. Workers mixed seawater with boron to cool the remaining rods, an unprecedented and desperate response. Radiation levels forced the workers' retreat, but they returned. Smoke drove them out. Again they returned. By May 3, the workforce had swelled to 1,312, among them firefighters, police officers, and the Self-Defense Forces of Japan.

It took nine days to restore power to Fukushima's cooling systems. Another two months passed before workers could enter reactor No. 1 to lower its radiation levels. Fukushima's accident was rated as severe as Chernobyl's, although it released only 10 percent of the amount of radiation released in the 1986 Russian disaster. On September 29, the core temperature for all three damaged reactors finally dropped below 100 degrees. Closing the plants will take 30 years.

Bravery unrecognized
Disaster didn't cut through the secretive nuclear hierarchy. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has been criticized for hiding facts and relying on inexperienced contractors who were paid half the wages of its regular employees, as well as for its complicated compensation paperwork and eventual $11.5 billion bailout.

Failures at the top only magnified the bravery at the ground level. That spirit goes way back: About 300 scientists and medical professionals, some of whom were Hiroshima survivors, volunteered to work at Fukushima. The last tally showed two people dead (Kazuhiko Kokubo and Yoshiki Tereshima, on the day of the tsunami) and more than 20 injured.

The Fukushima workers haven't yet been formally commended in Japan, and they may not be. An October 17 profile in the New Yorker points out that their employer, TEPCO, can't be trusted. Accolades might diminish victims' suffering and call attention to subcontracted "nuclear gypsies." As one worker said, "At Chernobyl, you know, the workers received medals. ... We'll be lucky if we get a commemorative towel or a ballpoint pen. We are taboo."

They have received acknowledgement elsewhere. On September 7, Spain awarded them the Prince of Asturias Award. "The behaviour of these people has also embodied the values most deeply rooted in Japanese society," reads the accolade, "such as the sense of duty, personal and family sacrifice for the greater good and dignity in the face of adversity, humility, generosity and courage."

The Yahoo! Year in Review editorial lead for five years running, Vera H-C Chan dissects news events, pop-culture idiosyncrasies, and online behavior to probe the "why" behind what's hot online. On Yahoo!, her articles can be found in News, TV, Movies, and her Shine blog Fast-Talking Dame. Across the Net, there are remnants of contributions to a cultural travel guide, martial arts encyclopedia, movie criticism, business profiles, and A&E/features reporting.

Mohamed Bouazizi had to make a living. His father had died of heart failure when Mohamed was 3 years old, and his stepfather wasn't strong. Bouazizi had a high school education but stopped short of graduating because there was no money for his schooling. Instead, at 19, he worked to support his five younger siblings, including a sister bound for university.

Trying to make a living in Tunisia can be more grueling than any job. The country's history has been one of invasions and enlightenment. In Tunisia's recent past, France ruled for 75 years, until 1956. The French planned for a constitutional monarchy for Tunisia's first elections, but Habib Bourguiba circumvented them and created a republic -- one with a single party. He ruled for 31 years, until a bloodless coup replaced him with Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in 1987. Under Ben Ali, the standard of living improved compared with that of neighboring countries, and the per capita GDP tripled in 20 years. But those who benefited were a select group: Corruption was blatant, and a U.S. ambassador report -- made public through Wikileaks in 2010 -- described Ben Ali's regime as "sclerotic" and its populace as "frustrated by the lack of political freedom and angered by First Family corruption, high unemployment, and regional inequities."

Harassment, humiliation
Bouazizi lived in Sidi Bouzid, a "farm town" with a 30% unemployment rate. For seven years, he pushed a cart of fruits and vegetables. The work was tiring, and he was saving to purchase a pickup truck. For seven years, the police harassed him and other market sellers, taking their goods with impunity. His friend Hajlauoi Jaafer told Al-Jazeera that Bouazizi had learned to live with humiliation ever since he was a child. But in his last year, the debasement worsened. He had received a 400-dinar fine, equal to two months' earnings.

Details differ on exactly what happened on December 17. An official, Fedya Hamdi, stopped him in the streets. This time Bouazizi didn't want to give up his goods. The night before, he had shown his mother the fine oranges, dates, and apples. "Tomorrow," he had told her, "will be a good day."

The fine was 10 dinars, a good day's wages, but then something else, something more important, was taken from Bouazizi. Defiant words were exchanged. Hamdi may have hit him with a baton. A group of policemen wrestled him to the ground and took his wares. Then, before a crowd of about 50, the official slapped him in the face.

"Blame these days, don't blame me"
Bouazizi had a mother and seven brothers and sisters. They depended on him. He went to local officials, to no avail. He posted a message on his mother Mannoubia Bouazizi's Facebook wall:

"I'm traveling, mom. Put no blame on me. I'm lost in a road I have not chosen. Forgive me if I ever disobeyed you. Blame these days, don't blame me. I'm leaving with no return. I've had enough of crying and no tears came out of my eyes. There's no need to blame this age of treachery in this estranged land. I'm tired and putting everything behind. I'm traveling and I'm wondering if the travel will help me forget."

Within an hour, Bouazizi had set himself on fire.

An ambulance took 90 minutes to arrive. He went to three different hospitals and lasted 18 days before dying. During that time, a video of his act -- recorded by his cousin -- spread through Facebook. Ben Ali visited Bouazizi in the hospital with a check. (His mother claims the check was for the cameras only.) At that point, it was too late for either Bouazizi or Ben Ali: The revolt had begun. Other men killed themselves, and other men were killed in police confrontations. Mobile phones captured images of riots, which were circulated online, setting off a contagion of outrage. Ten days after Bouazizi died, on January 4, Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.

About 5,000 people attended Bouzazi's funeral. Hamdi was arrested and spent three months in prison, but Bouazizi's family withdrew its complaint. His mother cast her first vote in an election. The family mourns its son, brother, and nephew but takes pride in the spirit that brought Tunisia to this day.

Martyrdom questioned
Tunisians are still fighting for representation. In October, protesters burned government offices. One video captured a chant, "You can't insult the people of Sidi Bouzid."

In the neighborhood, Bouazizi's legacy is murkier. The family left Sidi Bouzid for a suburban apartment. Resentful former neighbors accused them of profiting, which saddens the Bouazizis. Hamdi denied having slapped the vendor. Others martyrs have emerged. But it began with Bouazizi.

The Yahoo! Year in Review editorial lead for five years running, Vera H-C Chan dissects news events, pop-culture idiosyncrasies, and online behavior to probe the "why" behind what's hot online. On Yahoo!, her articles can be found in News, TV, Movies, and her Shine blog Fast-Talking Dame. Across the Net, there are remnants of contributions to a cultural travel guide, martial arts encyclopedia, movie criticism, business profiles, and A&E/features reporting.

It takes three things to start a fire: heat, fuel, and oxygen. In Texas, it usually takes one thing to put out that blaze: the heroism of volunteer firefighters. More than 70% of U.S. firefighters are volunteers, and 30,000 of these brave men and women protect the Lone Star state, often paying out of their own pockets for supplies and gear.

So when a combination of ample vegetation, a prolonged drought, and strong winds produced the worst wildfire season in the state's history, Texas fire teams went to work, "rushing toward the flames in tread-worn boots that don't fit, fire suits too hot and heavy for the job, and sometimes, quite literally, in blue jeans."

Deep budget cuts
Scenes of volunteers risking their lives with little or no equipment to protect them prompted plenty of finger pointing. Critics of Governor Rick Perry blasted his approval in April of deep budget cuts to the Texas Forest Service, which steps in when fires are too big for local departments. Many say the service was already underfunded, even though those cuts didn't take effect until September. Perry, whose campaign for the Republican Party's presidential nomination includes a call for less federal spending, asked for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid amid the fire crisis. Austin Republican Representative Michael McCaul said, "We should have had more [federal] assets prepositioned."

The past year's fires claimed thousands of homes and buildings, burned almost 4 million acres (more land than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined), and killed five people, including three firefighters.

Most destructive wildfire in Texas history
September's Bastrop County Complex fire destroyed more than 1,600 homes, making it the most destructive wildfire in Texas history. That fire, just southeast of Austin, also burned 96 percent of Bastrop State Park and separated hundreds of pets from their owners.

Among those who lost homes, pets, and possessions in the fires were some of Texas's volunteer firefighters. But these heroes have gained something, too. "This whole thing has fraternalized us," Mizzy Zdroj told the Los Angeles Times. "They're my brothers now. Anyone who goes through that kind of hell with you, you're cast iron with them."

Caroline Que is the D.C. editor for Yahoo! Local. Before joining Yahoo!, she worked at the Washington Post.

To lay eyes on John Feal is to know he was marked by September 11. His blue shirt displays the Statue of Liberty in front of the American flag. Like the red bracelet and ring he's wearing, it bears the name of a September 11-related foundation that he started. His black SUV carries a silhouette of the logo that's on his shirt.

A tattoo on his left arm shows an eagle in front of the twin towers, a flag rippling in the background, and the letters FDNY running down toward his elbow. Nearly his entire back is taken up a black-inked Statue of Liberty holding a baby. Above Lady Liberty are the words "No Responder Left Behind." To the left, there are five dates. The first is 9/17/01: "The day my life was altered," Feal says.

Ground Zero injury
Feal represents the countless heroic acts that arose from September 11, 2001. A construction supervisor who worked 70 to 80 hours a week at sites around the New York City area, Feal, 44, a lifelong Long Island resident, was called to Ground Zero on September 12 to help remove debris from the twin towers wreckage. On September 17, an 8,000-pound steel beam fell on his left foot.

He spent nine days in the hospital, where he had multiple surgeries and almost died of gangrene. Doctors had to amputate part of the wounded foot. Over the next five years, he underwent more surgeries and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

His application for financial help was denied. Only people who got hurt within 96 hours of September 11 could receive money from the first victims compensation fund set up by Congress. Feal was injured about 120 hours after the attacks.

That timing transformed his life. The patriot and Army veteran refused to accept the terms the government had laid down. He worked to change them, making a name for himself in Washington and setting up the FealGood Foundation to help anyone hurt or made sick by September 11 to get health insurance and other benefits.

"I was watching this girl who was just enjoying life. Couldn't make conversation, yet she was having a conversation with her father and sister," he recalls. "But to watch her get her mouth above the straw just to have a sip of her drink, probably took 5 or 10 minutes. And I'm saying to myself, 'This girl loves life. She doesn't know any better. She was born without a choice, and she's not complaining.' And I'm saying to myself, 'I have a choice. I lived a good 34 years before my life was changed.' And since that day, I've never felt sorry for myself [or] complained."

He became known as "the guy that could help." He and other ailing responders showed up at Social Security or workers compensation hearing, to urge the judges and lawyers to grant the victim benefits. The tactics were "kind of thuggish and kind of caveman-ish at best," he admitted, but they worked. People were dying. "I'll never apologize to anybody when it comes to human life. You do what it takes to get the job done."

He used the same "thuggish" style to get Congress to approve the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act -- a $4.3 billion measure expanding the pool of people eligible to receive money for September 11-related injuries or losses. The president signed the bill on January 2. It's not perfect, Feal says, but it's better than nothing.

Another date
Of the five dates tattooed on his back, the last is 5/1/11: "the day Osama bin Laden was removed from this earth," he says. The death didn't give him closure, though, because September 11 responders keep dying.

At the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, Feal showed no signs of slowing down in his goal to help everyone affected by the attacks. He's working at the request of Senator Jay Rockefeller to create a public-safety broadband network that could be used to help first responders communicate during a national emergency. He may run for office. Despite physical and mental pain, he thinks September 11 altered his life for the better.

"I lost half a foot," Feal says, "but I grew an extra heart."

This excerpt is from an article that originally appeared on 9/11 Remembered.

A former reporter for the Associated Press and ABC News, Laura E. Davis writes about gay rights and the Supreme Court. She is one of the social media editors for Yahoo! News. Follow her on Twitter at @laura_ynews.