For Two Little Compton Police Officers, Life After Sept. 11 Was Spent on the Battlefield

Constantino Natale and Andrew Morgan have each been to Iraq twice since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Both are now preparing for tentative deployment to Afghanistan in the next year.

The two serve together as members of the , but also as members of the 169^th Military Police Battalion of the Rhode Island Army National Guard, based out of Warren.

Both men have mixed feelings about going back, with their families in mind, but both also acknowledge the elevated threat the country faces in light of the 10^th anniversary of the attacks.

“It’s a reactive society we live in,” Natale said.

That Fateful Day

Both men can recall where they were on that September morning in 2001.

Natale, 35 and a Portsmouth resident, was a correctional officer at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. On Sept. 11, all of the inmates were watching the news and listening on their headphones. Natale said one inmate asked him to unmute the television when they saw one of the planes going into the Twin Towers.

“I unplugged the transmitter, hopped on a chair and turned it up to the highest capacity,” he said. “Usually there’s a line between officer and inmate, but at that point, we were Americans.”

Morgan, 27, was about a month into the Delayed Entry Program with the Marines Corps and was sitting in class at Lincoln High School when the news came of the attacks.

“It just made me want it that much more,” he said. “I just wanted to take the fight back to them.”

Going to War

Natale joined the Air Force as a security police officer in 1994. When he got out, he joined the Army National Guard. He was deployed to Iraq in February 2003 with the 118th Military Police Battalion of Warwick. Natale was involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom and returned to the country again in 2007 with the 169th MP Battalion.

In Operation Iraqi Freedom, Natale said he was based out of Bagdhad International Airport, helping conduct combat training with the infantry and cavalry out of Fallujah. On his first tour, Natal said he felt like the “ugly American” out there.

“We were ignorant as to what we were expecting,” he said. “This mentality of ‘us versus them.’”

Natale’s objective was to liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein’s regime, and he had 10 soldiers under his command. They ran convoy escorts between Kuwait and Bagdhad, securing clothes, food, water and school supplies for Iraqi citizens. His unit also raided houses and looked for improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Natale said he became more immersed in the Iraqi culture in 2007 in the Anbar Province, with Hussein’s regime toppled and the “power vacuum” of different religious groups vying for power.

“The line wasn’t drawn anymore,” he said. “The guys we were fighting with five years earlier we were living in the same hut with every day, which was weird.”

Over time, after going out on patrols with Iraqi soldiers, Natale said a mutual respect developed. He said he learned a lot of the Arabic language, that they learned a lot of English and that to this day he still keeps in touch with some of the Iraqi soldiers via email.

Morgan, now a resident of Tiverton, joined the Marine Corps in August 2001 in the Delayed Entry Program. After completing boot camp in July 2002, he was deployed with the Bravo Battery, First Battalion, 11th Marines and was involved in the march to Bagdhad. Morgan’s second tour was in March 2006.

Morgan said when he went to Bagdhad after the U.S. first invaded the country. They spent a lot of time clearing out “tons and tons” of stockpiled ammunition from different schools. He said schools had machine guns painted on the walls.

“This is how the kids were raised,” he said. “Violence is in their teaching and education.”

“Every single household has at least one AK-47,” added Natale.

Specializing in artillery, Morgan said he was in some firefights, and that his battalion was responsible for providing direct support to infantry battalions on the ground. He also was a part of the advance party, which scouts out land before the battery comes in.

Traveling through Al Nazaria in southern Iraq was particularly hostile, Morgan said, describing one engagement where one unit was leap-frogging the other and the commanding officer got his arm blown off.

“They were under severe attack,” he said. “We supported him and got through the night.”

Morgan affirmed that his second tour in 2006 was still dangerous, but that there was a different climate in the culture.

Leaving Home

Both men said that one of the hardest parts of their service was the distance it put between them and their loved ones back home in Rhode Island.

Natale is married with two kids. Morgan is recently married.

“Being married creates a whole new problem,” Natale said. “Your loved ones are here."

In his first tour, Natale said his wife was with their three-year-old at home.

"So now she’s got to figure where the circuit box is located, take care of the bills, mow the lawn and, if the roof blows off, find a carpenter," he said. "They’ve got to do everything, worry about you and watch CNN."

Morgan said his first call home wasn’t until five months into his first deployment.

Both men say it won’t be easy if they have to go to Afghanistan and leave their families behind again, but that they recognize the threat that still exists.

“Life has changed,” Morgan said. “The military in general has done a huge leap in communications, and we’ve got to maintain focus that the threat is real and [another attack] could happen.”

This story is part of a larger Patch series remembering Sept. 11. To see our region's complete coverage of the 10-year anniversary, you can follow our special Facebook page, Rhode Island Remembers 9/11.