Staff Sgt. Jose Mercado (left) and Sgt. Nelson Vergara, both with Mobile Training Team, Iraqi Security Force, II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD), stand in front of a police car at the ISF compound on Camp Fallujah, Iraq. Both reserve Marines, who attached to II MEF (FWD) from 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division, based in Garden City, N.Y., were on the scene as the events of 9/11 unfolded, serving as New York City police officers. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Evan M. Eagan
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq(Sept. 23, 2005) -- “All I could see was a big cloud of dust and smoke and people running all over the place to get away from it,” said Staff Sgt. Jose Mercado, recalling his memory of the North Tower of the World Trade Center as it collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001. “I didn’t know what was happening. It was total chaos.”
For Mercado and Sgt. Nelson Vergara, two Marines who play a vital role as part of Mobile Training Team, Iraqi Security Force, II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD), serving in Iraq has a personal meaning few Marines can relate to.
Both reserve Marines, who attached to II MEF (FWD) from 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division, based in Garden City, N.Y., were on the scene as the events of 9/11 unfolded, serving as New York City police officers.
Mercado vividly remembers the morning of the attacks.
“I was on the sixth floor of the Police Academy Headquarters Building on Third Avenue and 20th Street,” said Mercado, who works in the Housing Division of Brooklyn North. “I could see the buildings [Twin Towers] from my office. I was grabbed to conduct traffic and shortly after that the second building got hit.”
Vergara, who was on his day off and was coming off a 4 p.m. to midnight shift, was awakened by his mother with the news of the first plane hitting the North Tower.
“I really didn’t believe it,” said the Queens, N.Y., native. “I got up and turned on the TV and saw that it was happening. I took a shower and got dressed because I knew I was going to be called in to work. We didn’t know it was a terrorist attack at that time, but after I finished getting ready the second plane had already hit [the South Tower].”
Living approximately five to seven miles from the towers, Vergara got in his car and made his way to the site.
Weaving through gridlocked traffic he received a call from his precinct, the 33rd Precinct of Manhattan North’s Patrol Bureau, and was ordered to go to the George Washington Bridge, which connects Manhattan to New Jersey, for traffic detail. As he headed to his post, Vergara watched the North Tower collapse.
Both Marines would spend the better part of six months serving in support of search and recovery missions at Ground Zero.
One thing that stood out in Vergara’s mind was the support the city received during this time.
“We had people volunteering from all over the country,” he said. “Policemen, firemen, and even civilians were coming out to do whatever they could to help. I was very impressed and proud to be a part of the city.”
According to Vergara, who was out of the Marine Corps at the time, he felt like he wasn’t doing all he could to serve his country.
“When I started hearing news of a possible Iraq campaign I decided to get back in the Marine Corps,” he said. “I was out for about a year-and-a-half and reenlisted on Feb. 17, 2003. About a month later I went to Iraq with [I Marine Expeditionary Force] as part of Task Force Tarawa for an eight month deployment.”
Mercado was already in the region, stationed at Camp Commando, Kuwait, with Headquarters Company, Communication Platoon, 2/25.
Now, on their second deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Mercado and Vergara are stationed here at Camp Fallujah, training Iraqis to become a police force that can one day operate without the aid of coalition forces.
As members of the ISF’s Mobile Training Team, the two Marines are involved with the Fallujah Project, which is designed to lay the foundation for police stations in Al Anbar province.
Vergara currently trains Iraqi Police with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, in Saqalawiyah, Iraq, where he has been integral to the success of the police station being set up and manned by fully trained personnel.
Mercado recently finished a site assessment for an Iraqi police station in Ferris Town, where coalition and Iraqi force presence has increased in the last month.
The Marines will remain in country until the II MEF (FWD) transfer of authority early next year, but in the meantime they are proud to be serving their country, no matter which hat they wear.
“To come out here and succeed is a great reward,” said Mercado. “We represent not only the Marine Corps, but also the NYPD and I am very proud of it. I have two chips on my shoulder. On one shoulder I have the eagle, globe and anchor and on the other is the NYPD shield.”