Chris Harper Mercer, the violent gunman who killed nine people last Thursday at Umpqua Community College, spent less than a month in the U.S. Army. Military officials confirmed that he enlisted in 2008, but was quickly discharged after only a few weeks of basic training.

Due to the military’s privacy policies, it did not confirm the reason behind Mercer’s discharge.

While Mercer’s connection to the Army is thin, his rampage last Thursday touched the lives of several military members. Army veteran Chris Mintz became a national hero when he endured seven gunshots in order to keep Mercer from entering his classroom. He was almost killed, but is expected to make a full recovery after his broken legs heal. As of this posting, military veterans and American citizens across the country have contributed more than $700,000 to Mintz through GoFundMe.

While Mintz found himself in the thick of it, another military hero narrowly avoided being involved himself. Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, one of the three Americans who helped disarm a terrorist on a European train in August, was enrolled to attend class at Umpqua Community College in the very building that Mercer attacked. The only reason that Skarlatos was not in the middle of the mayhem that day was because he was cast in ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and dropped out of school. He was last in school in 2014 before he was deployed in Afghanistan.

“I would’ve been there today if I didn’t agree to do this show,” Skarlatos said. “I had classes picked out and everything.”

Meanwhile, another veteran decided that intentionally staying out of the way was the best course of action during the shooting. Air Force veteran John Parker Jr. deliberately removed himself from the situation to prevent confusion with law enforcement even though he was armed. “If we had our guns ready to shoot [SWAT] could think we were the bad guys,” Parker explained.