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The 9/11 Marine

Written by Spc. Michael Vanpool
101st Sustainment Brigade

101st Sustainment Brigade - LifelinersFort Campbell KY, 101st Airborne Division

Balkh Province, Afghanistan – In the shadow of American, Afghan and International Security Assistance Forces flags flowing at half-staff, a New York City police officer took an oath for remain a United States Marine.

Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Ingrao, a reservist working in the Joint Robotics Center on Forward Operating Base Dehdadi II, held his right hand and was re-enlisted by Lt. Col. Austin Elliot, battalion commander, 530th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

“Every year I look to this day,” Ingrao said, “but the 10-year anniversary is very special just because it’s been that long. It’s a day that every year I always remember, as a New Yorker, as an American, as a military member and as a police officer.”

Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Ingrao, a Marine reservist working in the Joint Robotics Center on Forward Operating Base Dehdadi II, holds his right hand and is re-enlisted by Lt. Col. Austin Elliot, battalion commander of the 530th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Ingrao is a Marine reservist, currently deployed to Afghanistan, and a New York City police officer. (Photo by Spc. Michael Vanpool)
Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Ingrao, a Marine reservist working in the Joint Robotics Center on Forward Operating Base Dehdadi II, holds his right hand and is re-enlisted by Lt. Col. Austin Elliot, battalion commander of the 530th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Ingrao is a Marine reservist, currently deployed to Afghanistan, and a New York City police officer. (Photo by Spc. Michael Vanpool)

Ingrao will now serve four more years in the United States Marine Corps.

Ingrao was an active duty Marine Corps 10 years ago, watching the events of 9/11 unfold from across the world in Okinawa, Japan. He has spent every September 11th. 11 in different countries during the past decade, including Iraq, Germany, Japan and in his hometown, New York City.

Each year brings back the memories of that day in 2001, but this time is different.

“For some reason I always wanted to be in Afghanistan, this is something I always wanted to do,” Ingrao said. “And to be here on the 10th year anniversary, the reason that you are in Afghanistan, since right after 9/11, we’ve been here. And I felt like I just needed to be here. It was more like a calling to come here.”

Even as he spends another year thousand miles away from New York, Ingrao and Americans across the world pause to remember the victims and heroes of 9/11.

He recited the oath minutes before the time the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and made sure that the soldiers, airmen and civilians standing around stopped for a moment of silence at the time of the first impact 10 years ago.

“Every day we try to do something to remember them, that’s what this day is about, remembering the victims and the heroes of 9/11,” Ingrao said. “This day is about the victims, and the victims’ families, and the struggles they will have to go through for the rest of their lives.”

For all the people escaping the towers, there were countless police officers, firemen and rescue workers racing inside to help people to the streets. Those police officers became Ingrao’s brothers and sisters when he joined the New York City Police Department four and a half years ago, he said.

“They ran into the building when others were running out,” he said. “That shows a tremendous amount of bravery from the police department, that’s something you can’t just take away.”

While his fellow police officers wait for Ingrao’s return, he is sending them the American flag he stood under when he reenlisted. The flag will be given to the World Trade Center Command, which opens today.

As another year passes, Ingrao said he looks to the future with no hesitation in continuing two of the most respected, demanding and gratifying callings in the world.

“I’m staying in the Marine Corps for 20 years, of course, maybe longer,” he said. “And I’m going to be a police officer for 20 years, maybe longer. They just go hand in hand.”

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