At the Pentagon on 9/11, NJIT's Aulov Looks Back 20 Years Later on that Consequential Day
Monuel M. Aulov, Associate Director of Research for Ying Wu College of Computing, was a 21-year-old U.S. Marine Corporal at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. As the anniversary of the attack approaches, he reflects on that day, his immediate realization that “we were going to war” and the end of that conflict 20 years later.
Q: What were you doing on the morning of Sept. 11?
A: My day started at 7:30 a.m. in the “D” ring of the Pentagon with roll call and a cup of coffee. I then dove into my daily routine, researching compensation claims filed by past U.S. Marines and their families, sometimes posthumously, for long-awaited medals and unpaid hazard pay for time served in a combat zone. Some of these claims went as far back as World War II. After training in the field with combat engineers in the 2nd Marine Division Fleet Marine Force in Jacksonville, N.C., learning to defuse IEDs and conduct daily maintenance on Humvees, and also processing travel claims, this is the work that brought me to the Pentagon. I needed a skill and financial administration was a good fit. The Pentagon is the military’s headquarters and its administrative core.
Q: When did you realize the Pentagon had been attacked?
A: An hour after we started work that day, a sergeant came in and said he’d seen something on TV about the World Trade Center getting hit. I thought he was talking about the van attack in 1993. We had no televisions or smartphones. We were very task-focused. Forty-five minutes later, the building started to rumble and shake. The sergeant came back in with soot on his face and told us we’d been hit. He told us to grab our things and head to the courtyard. We saw shrapnel on the ground. Security officers then took over and led us through a tunnel through the rings of the building to the outside. It was there that we saw the tail of an airplane in flames. It had penetrated two-and-a-half of the Pentagon’s five concentric rings.
Q: What were your initial thoughts that day about the impact of the attack?
A: Right away, I realized that an important, ‘political’ building had been hit, and that we were going to war. This seemed unstoppable. I could also sense the attitude of my brother Marines – it was ‘let’s go’ from the beginning. We were in a period of peace, but we spent our time preparing for war. I knew this was what Marines call “the opportunity.” The rumors started immediately. Soon after, the military announced stop-loss, meaning you couldn’t leave even if your enlistment period was ending or your retirement had come up. That included everyone from the generals on down.
Q: How did your job change in the aftermath of the attack?
A: Dramatically. At 7:30 the next morning, I was on a search-and-rescue team, putting out fires and assisting the Red Cross and the local fire department on the parking deck across from the impact zone. The next day, I was put on a special communications command in the Pentagon’s annex building, where I answered and routed “imminent threat” calls, everything from people calling in tips – and many of these were hoaxes – to reports of a plane not responding. We were so on edge in those first weeks that whenever a captain of a boat or a plane didn’t respond, the Pentagon alerted fighter jets. That was a unique experience. I then spent more than two months carefully opening up mail with a hazmat suit and mask on in a closet-sized room, locked from the outside. I had a flip phone to alert my sergeant and captain just in case I found powder. When you open a letter under a lamp, you can see dust particles, so it was a pretty scary time.
Q: How did the attack change your personal and professional lives?
A: The moments after the attack were surreal. We were all shell-shocked. But my first thought after getting out of the building was my wife in the Bronx, who was pregnant with our first child, and what this was doing to her. I reached her by phone five hours after the Pentagon was struck. Her family, my family and our friends worried I’d been killed. I spoke with my sergeant, got in the car and drove to New York – my Pentagon ID got me over the George Washington Bridge – spent two hours there, and then got back in the car with my wife to drive back in time to report for duty the next morning. At the time I first enlisted as a 19-year-old high school graduate, I planned to stay in the Marine Corps for 12 to 20 years. But I’d since been rethinking, and began preparing for a civilian life. With a child on the way, 9/11 decided my path. When my commanding officer let me know about a break in the stop-loss, I decided not to re-enlist and was honorably discharged. It was a bittersweet moment saying goodbye to my brothers.
Q: How do you feel about the end of the war in Afghanistan?
A: I feel it was time – to me, overdue. Someone had to rip that band aid off. I think for both the country and the U.S. Marines fighting there, it was unclear what winning meant or how we’d do it. My personal mindset is that our president is our Commander in Chief – he directs and we follow. As a survivor of the attack, I don’t see myself as a victim or a hero, but someone who stepped up on behalf of our country. For my brothers who stayed behind to fight the good fight, I have nothing but admiration and respect. Some gave the ultimate sacrifice and that courageous decision left families torn apart. Twenty years later, I have a better appreciation that I’m standing here alive today.
