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A day that many remember and few will ever forget – the day four
planes were hijacked and America was attacked. It was a day that
would change the lives of thousands of Americans, on that day and
for many years to come.
Born May 13, 1977, Petty Officer 1st
Class Aaron Spaulding's life-long dream was to enlist into the Navy
as a medical corpsman. He enlisted and left for boot camp July 30,
1999. He completed his training and checked into his first duty
station aboard Camp Pendleton, California, and was assigned to 1st
Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, during July 2000.
While
serving with 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, he deployed with the 15th
Marine Expeditionary Unit as a company line corpsman on a Western
Pacific Tour, during July 2001.
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Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Spaulding
deployed to Afghanistan as the War on Terror kicked off in 2001. 13
years later, he's deployed there again to assist with security force
assistance operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Jessica Ostroska)
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“We headed to Darwin, Australia, to conduct some training
with the Australian Army,” said Spaulding, a Glendale,
Arizona, native. “After the training we were going to get a
few days of liberty. We came back to the ship following the
completion of the training, cleaned up our gear, showered,
put on our liberty clothes and headed out. I remember I was
in a bar with a bunch of friends when all the lights came on
and they started yelling for all the Marines and sailors to
get out. We weren't sure what was going on as we boarded
some buses to take us back to the ships.”
The plan
was to travel to Australia, Singapore, Hawaii, Bahrain, and
Thailand conducting training with the different countries'
military. Little did they know a tragic event would change
those plans.
“We
were on the buses riding back to the ship, and on the radio you
could hear them say, ‘Another plane just crashed into the Pentagon.'
I remember like it was yesterday,” said Spaulding. “People were
freaking out, and we are all like ‘what is going on?' There were
chiefs and gunnies with us on the bus, and they said, ‘We are going
to Afghanistan. We are going to war.' I mean they knew right away
who it was. It was crazy. They said, ‘We are going to get them.'”
An Islamic terrorist group, al-Qaeda, had launched an attack
against America, Sept. 11, 2001. Four planes were hijacked: two were
flown into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in
New York City; one plane was flown into the Pentagon; and the fourth
was targeted at Washington D.C., but crashed into a field in
Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after the passengers tried to overcome
the hijackers.
On that day, more than 3,000 people were
killed in the attacks, from the people working in the buildings and
the passengers on the planes, to the firefighters and police
officers risking their lives to help those trapped in the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon.
“We headed full speed North to
Jacobabad, Pakistan, awaiting orders from the president to invade
Afghanistan, beginning Operation Enduring Freedom,” said Spaulding.
“We waited there for a little over a month or so.”
The United
States of America responded to the terrorist group by launching the
Global War on Terror. They invaded Afghanistan to seek out and
destroy al-Qaeda, which was hosted by the Taliban.
“On Nov.
25, 2001, we conducted an amphibious assault over 400 miles into the
land-locked country of Afghanistan, becoming the first U.S. ground
troops in the region,” said Spaulding. “We set new standards for
Marine Corps amphibious doctrine. We landed at a remote airbase, 90
miles southwest of Kandahar, and occupied America's first forward
operating base, Camp Rhino, and maintained the first significant
conventional ground presence in Afghanistan.”
Camp Rhino was
an abandoned runway just southwest of Kandahar. The 15th MEU's
mission was to seal off the city, cut off incoming supplies and
escape routes, and take over the Kandahar airport. At its peak, the
Camp contained approximately 1,100 Marines and corpsmen under the
command of, then, Brig. Gen. James N. Mattis.
“From November
2001 until the end of January 2002, we lived in fighting holes,”
said Spaulding. “Literally, big holes we dug in the dirt, in a
perimeter to surround the entire camp, and we went outside the wire
and conducted different missions to gain objectives.” Once they took
the Kandahar airfield, the 15th MEU was replaced by the 26th MEU and
the Marines and sailors headed back to their respective ships that
were anchored and awaiting their return to the Arabian Sea.
Since his first deployment with the first Marine unit into
Afghanistan, Spaulding has completed two successful combat tours.
One with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, during 2003 as the
United States invaded Iraq and during the intense battle in
Fallujah, and then with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, during
2005 to 2006.
Now, 13 years later, Spaulding is once again
deployed to Afghanistan as the senior medical department
representative and serving with the last Marine unit in the country,
Marine Expeditionary Brigade – Afghanistan, under the command of
Brig. Gen. Daniel D. Yoo.
The missions have changed from
counterinsurgency to security force assistance operations throughout
the years, and the Marines and sailors currently have the
responsibility of retrograding all personnel and equipment out of
the country.
“It is such a substantial honor to be a part of
the first group that was here as the War on Terror kicked off in
2001, and to now have an active role in the end of operations as the
units exit the country,” said Spaulding. “It means a lot to me to be
a part of this history 13 years later. I have two boys, and they
will read about this in their history books and know that their dad
was a part of it.”
By U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jessica Ostroska
DoD Live
Copyright 2014
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