thedrifter
07-21-07, 07:46 AM
July 20, 2007, 7:20 a.m.
South Tower to Baghdad
A 9/11 survivor becomes a Marine.
By Michael O'Brien
As Mark Finelli escaped the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and made his way towards safety in the Hudson River, all he could think about was his future.
“The decision was instantaneous,” he says. “That very day, I decided that I was going to join the Marine Corps. I was looking at the towers before they fell, and I thought I was going to be drafted anyway. I remember thinking that I’d rather join the Marines than the Army.”
And that’s what he did, abandoning a six-figure salary to take up arms in the war on terror. Now he’s back in the United States, talking about his experience.
The 31-year-old Finelli is a native of the Bronx, but was in Manhattan by happenstance. He had moved to Tucson to work as an investment banker for Morgan Stanley, which, in turn, had sent him back home for training in their offices in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
“On that Tuesday morning, I distinctly remember thinking to myself that it was the most beautiful morning in the history of New York City’” he says. “It was amazing, picturesque.” He had nearly met his death in a skydiving mishap just three days earlier after a pilot chute malfunction, but nevertheless managed to make it to his hometown for training.
That morning, the new investment bankers gathered on the 61st floor of the South Tower for their seminars. During a coffee break, there was an explosion. “I saw the black smoke that came out of the back side of the North Tower, where the other plane had hit,” Finelli says. “I grabbed my suit coat and cell phone, and had the intuition to get out.”
Finelli sprinted down 61 flights of stairs. When he reached the 11th floor, he felt the second plane hit. “I had thought that the other tower had crumbled onto ours,” he says. “I remember the smell of jet fuel, probably running down the elevator shafts, which I only knew from my experience skydiving.”
Thankfully, the other Morgan Stanley employees were able to escape the Towers that day, due largely to the firm’s security personnel. “To the best of my knowledge,” Finelli says, “the only MS employees who died were security personnel, who died as heroes saving all of us. They stayed behind to clear the floors.”
He made it out of the stairwell, and onto the first floor of the World Trade Center. “I was literally hurdling over dead bodies,” Finelli says. “I had to put my shoulder down and barrel through a guard just to make it out of one of the exits.” Finelli ran until he hit the Hudson River.
It was then that Finelli the investment banker decided to become Finelli the Marine. He took a few months to work out and get in shape, and then enlisted.
Finelli credits his courage to enlist and fight in Iraq to his experiences at Hampden-Sydney, a men’s college in Virginia. “Honor still matters there,” he says. “To be a Hampden-Sydney man in the middle of that terrorist attack, and not take up arms would be the antithesis of what that school stands for.”
Finelli was eventually deployed to Iraq, where he served from July 2005 through February 2006 in Camp Fallujah. Before he went in, he says, he heard from antiwar politicians and activists “that our men and women are sitting ducks in an intelligence failure. I was a sitting duck in an intelligence failure,” he argues, referencing the attacks on 9/11.
Still, despite the numerous setbacks and the erosion of political support for the war domestically, Finelli believes going into Iraq was the right thing to do. He acknowledges mismanagement and is particularly scornful toward former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s prewar strategy of trying to win the war with fewer troops. Yet he maintains that Iraq is too strategic to ignore. “Iraq borders six other nations,” Finelli says. “It’s a geopolitical lynchpin. It borders six other nations, and we have friends in India and Israel, and men in Afghanistan.”
Going to Iraq meant a lot of sacrifices for Corporal Finelli. When you find out you are going to war, he says, “You put your head in your hands and you cry. But then you get out there and do you do a good job. Everything changes at home, and when you go away, the world continues without you.” Even as political support for the war deteriorates, Finelli speaks of his courageous brothers and sisters in arms. “I could see in others’ faces: ‘Even though the politicians may not care about us, I’m going to sit here and do my job anyway.’”
Now that he is back stateside, Finelli is preparing to take a distinct message he learned from his experiences to the American public. He stresses two points: the need to bring back the draft, and the necessity of achieving energy independence from the Middle East. These, for Finelli, come under the umbrella of constantly remembering September 11 — and how Americans felt on September 12.
Americans were never told to make sacrifices, Finelli argues. This has caused a large-scale ignorance of our war efforts, and a lack of vigilance, in his view. “Britney Spears’s lack of underwear should not trump the release of the Iraq Study Group in the news cycle,” he says.
“America has been entirely uninterrupted in this war,” Finelli says, “No child of anyone of political or economic consequence has had to have their child serve.” He cites the example of the political families who have fought in wars throughout history — the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, the Churchills. “It used to be that if you didn’t go and fight during World War II, you were a coward,” he says. “Now, if you don’t go, it’s as though you’re smart.”
If a World War II–style draft were to be reinstated, Finelli argues, then the politicians will finally get serious about both winning the war as well as giving the troops on the ground the best protection and most advanced technology.
He also echoes New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s call for a Manhattan Project–style program dedicated to energy independence. “It might behoove us to not depend on the enemy for a critical economic input,” Finelli jokes. “It’s an idea that the left and right can grab onto — the left for the sake of clean energy, the right for the sake of defeating the jihadists.” But still, the lack of any such program plays into Finelli’s belief that Americans have been left undisturbed by the war. “That we don’t have a Manhattan Project for energy is a testament to how we have never had to make sacrifices,” he says.
Though still in the Inactive Ready Reserve until 2010, and currently pursuing an MBA, Finelli is now discussing his unique experiences as a 9/11-survivor-cum-Marine. He has collected pages of anecdotes from his experiences, for which he hopes to find a publisher and coauthor to publish as a book. He also is trying to break into the speakers’ circuit. His website details the efforts.
Finelli hopes these endeavors will help two organizations he thinks are important. The Iraq Afghanistan Veterans Association is one, which helps equip troops with the best armored trucks possible. The other, the Marine Corps Law Enforcement League, establishes education funds for the children of fallen Marines. “I’ve been to funerals where you have to console the wife of a fallen Marine, with three small children,” Finelli says. “You have to do something to help them out.”
Still, this son of a butcher continues on with the honor instilled in him as both a Hampden-Sydney man and a Marine. “Honor is the most expensive virtue,” says Finelli, “None of life’s pleasures are worth anything without honor.”
He continues, “Give yourself to some sort of common good for your country. There’s nothing more difficult than being a soldier at war.” He pauses before adding, “It takes young men sacrificing their lives so we can win the American dream.”
Ellie
South Tower to Baghdad
A 9/11 survivor becomes a Marine.
By Michael O'Brien
As Mark Finelli escaped the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and made his way towards safety in the Hudson River, all he could think about was his future.
“The decision was instantaneous,” he says. “That very day, I decided that I was going to join the Marine Corps. I was looking at the towers before they fell, and I thought I was going to be drafted anyway. I remember thinking that I’d rather join the Marines than the Army.”
And that’s what he did, abandoning a six-figure salary to take up arms in the war on terror. Now he’s back in the United States, talking about his experience.
The 31-year-old Finelli is a native of the Bronx, but was in Manhattan by happenstance. He had moved to Tucson to work as an investment banker for Morgan Stanley, which, in turn, had sent him back home for training in their offices in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
“On that Tuesday morning, I distinctly remember thinking to myself that it was the most beautiful morning in the history of New York City’” he says. “It was amazing, picturesque.” He had nearly met his death in a skydiving mishap just three days earlier after a pilot chute malfunction, but nevertheless managed to make it to his hometown for training.
That morning, the new investment bankers gathered on the 61st floor of the South Tower for their seminars. During a coffee break, there was an explosion. “I saw the black smoke that came out of the back side of the North Tower, where the other plane had hit,” Finelli says. “I grabbed my suit coat and cell phone, and had the intuition to get out.”
Finelli sprinted down 61 flights of stairs. When he reached the 11th floor, he felt the second plane hit. “I had thought that the other tower had crumbled onto ours,” he says. “I remember the smell of jet fuel, probably running down the elevator shafts, which I only knew from my experience skydiving.”
Thankfully, the other Morgan Stanley employees were able to escape the Towers that day, due largely to the firm’s security personnel. “To the best of my knowledge,” Finelli says, “the only MS employees who died were security personnel, who died as heroes saving all of us. They stayed behind to clear the floors.”
He made it out of the stairwell, and onto the first floor of the World Trade Center. “I was literally hurdling over dead bodies,” Finelli says. “I had to put my shoulder down and barrel through a guard just to make it out of one of the exits.” Finelli ran until he hit the Hudson River.
It was then that Finelli the investment banker decided to become Finelli the Marine. He took a few months to work out and get in shape, and then enlisted.
Finelli credits his courage to enlist and fight in Iraq to his experiences at Hampden-Sydney, a men’s college in Virginia. “Honor still matters there,” he says. “To be a Hampden-Sydney man in the middle of that terrorist attack, and not take up arms would be the antithesis of what that school stands for.”
Finelli was eventually deployed to Iraq, where he served from July 2005 through February 2006 in Camp Fallujah. Before he went in, he says, he heard from antiwar politicians and activists “that our men and women are sitting ducks in an intelligence failure. I was a sitting duck in an intelligence failure,” he argues, referencing the attacks on 9/11.
Still, despite the numerous setbacks and the erosion of political support for the war domestically, Finelli believes going into Iraq was the right thing to do. He acknowledges mismanagement and is particularly scornful toward former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s prewar strategy of trying to win the war with fewer troops. Yet he maintains that Iraq is too strategic to ignore. “Iraq borders six other nations,” Finelli says. “It’s a geopolitical lynchpin. It borders six other nations, and we have friends in India and Israel, and men in Afghanistan.”
Going to Iraq meant a lot of sacrifices for Corporal Finelli. When you find out you are going to war, he says, “You put your head in your hands and you cry. But then you get out there and do you do a good job. Everything changes at home, and when you go away, the world continues without you.” Even as political support for the war deteriorates, Finelli speaks of his courageous brothers and sisters in arms. “I could see in others’ faces: ‘Even though the politicians may not care about us, I’m going to sit here and do my job anyway.’”
Now that he is back stateside, Finelli is preparing to take a distinct message he learned from his experiences to the American public. He stresses two points: the need to bring back the draft, and the necessity of achieving energy independence from the Middle East. These, for Finelli, come under the umbrella of constantly remembering September 11 — and how Americans felt on September 12.
Americans were never told to make sacrifices, Finelli argues. This has caused a large-scale ignorance of our war efforts, and a lack of vigilance, in his view. “Britney Spears’s lack of underwear should not trump the release of the Iraq Study Group in the news cycle,” he says.
“America has been entirely uninterrupted in this war,” Finelli says, “No child of anyone of political or economic consequence has had to have their child serve.” He cites the example of the political families who have fought in wars throughout history — the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, the Churchills. “It used to be that if you didn’t go and fight during World War II, you were a coward,” he says. “Now, if you don’t go, it’s as though you’re smart.”
If a World War II–style draft were to be reinstated, Finelli argues, then the politicians will finally get serious about both winning the war as well as giving the troops on the ground the best protection and most advanced technology.
He also echoes New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s call for a Manhattan Project–style program dedicated to energy independence. “It might behoove us to not depend on the enemy for a critical economic input,” Finelli jokes. “It’s an idea that the left and right can grab onto — the left for the sake of clean energy, the right for the sake of defeating the jihadists.” But still, the lack of any such program plays into Finelli’s belief that Americans have been left undisturbed by the war. “That we don’t have a Manhattan Project for energy is a testament to how we have never had to make sacrifices,” he says.
Though still in the Inactive Ready Reserve until 2010, and currently pursuing an MBA, Finelli is now discussing his unique experiences as a 9/11-survivor-cum-Marine. He has collected pages of anecdotes from his experiences, for which he hopes to find a publisher and coauthor to publish as a book. He also is trying to break into the speakers’ circuit. His website details the efforts.
Finelli hopes these endeavors will help two organizations he thinks are important. The Iraq Afghanistan Veterans Association is one, which helps equip troops with the best armored trucks possible. The other, the Marine Corps Law Enforcement League, establishes education funds for the children of fallen Marines. “I’ve been to funerals where you have to console the wife of a fallen Marine, with three small children,” Finelli says. “You have to do something to help them out.”
Still, this son of a butcher continues on with the honor instilled in him as both a Hampden-Sydney man and a Marine. “Honor is the most expensive virtue,” says Finelli, “None of life’s pleasures are worth anything without honor.”
He continues, “Give yourself to some sort of common good for your country. There’s nothing more difficult than being a soldier at war.” He pauses before adding, “It takes young men sacrificing their lives so we can win the American dream.”
Ellie