For most of them, any kind of wound could end their major-league dreams forever. It was Nov. 10, 2004, Bellavia's 29th birthday. As a combat engineer, he was responsible for helping the grunts breach barriers. GI Joe vs. the Jarheads. - Slate Magazine He had been awake nearly 48 hours, denied sleep by a cacophony of sporadic gunfire aimed at him and his platoon as they made their way through the streets of Fallujah, Iraq. The last battalion of iraqi soldiers with 2nd brigade, 1st iraqi army division, withdrew from the anbar province city of fallujah, sept. 8 Marines killed near Fallujah by car bomb World News. Workman said the reunion will be cathartic even if Fallujah never comes up. At FOB Normandy, we were housed on the second floor of a two-story building. Marines hugged and shook hands, while others tore into MREs to pull out pound cakes, which they stuck matches in as if they were candles. Our platoon crashed through a door of a house and engaged in one firefight after another. Maj. Kyle Matus). (Then again, it may have hampered or delayed the talks; the situation is not yet clear.) A fourth insurgent then emerged from a closet in the bedroom, yelling and firing his weapon as he leaped over a bed trying to reach Bellavia. Just then, 1st Lt. Jeff Sommers, their platoon commander, rounded the corner and very cheerfully announced: Happy Birthday, Marines.. He didn't want Fallujah vets to have to spend a bunch of cash to be involved, so he got donations and help from the Semper Fi Fund, Azalea Charities, Reunite the Fight and others. We all lay flat, an unseen force pressing down. Back stateside, Nicholson recovered at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, as Operation Al-Fajr, a door-to-door fight in Fallujah, kicked off on Nov. 7. A sniper was in a minaret a couple of hundred yards away. Yet, over the past couple of weeks, this is precisely what the Marines have been doing: calling in air power, killing (unavoidably) innocent people, blowing up peoples houses. David Bellavia was bleary eyed. The Battle of Fallujah - Army University Press A bullet from the sniper hit him in the back, below his flak jacket, as he jumped into the stairwell. Phantom Fury veterans have until Saturday, Oct. 19, to register for the reunion. Many Marines of 3rd battalion 1st Marines engaged in grueling house-to-house fighting. During a lull in the fire, Bellavia approached the house again and observed an insurgent loading a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Most of the fighting in the Second Battle of Fallujah subsided by Nov. 13. It was an old fashioned marine charge. When this happens, youll truly be ready to defend this great nation and make sure your brothers and sisters in uniform make it back home. I started the battle with an entire machine gun squad, until mortars rained down on a street where were pulling security. We knew early on. "If [Workman] could do it, you can, too," Kent said. One lesson of Fallujah is that neither the Army nor the Marine Corps is particularly well-suited for counter-insurgency warfare. If this step (which was reportedly proposed by the Iraqi general) succeedsif the Fallujans accept the unit as legitimateit could serve as a precedent for establishing security elsewhere in Iraqs Sunni areas and as the basis for an American exit strategy. And in an instant, he was gone. "We've lost more guys to suicide than we lost in the battle now," Jake Edwards, a former combat engineer who fought as a lance corporal in Fallujah. It was more like feeling their presence. And I'd say, "OK, OK, I get that. At one point during the fighting, after his unit had suffered several casualties, he was asked if he was okay. Sunnis have turned to them because of hatred of the Shia-led government in Baghdad. Attendees will range from four-star generals who led the battle to junior enlisted troops who cleared rooms. In any case, an interesting development has occurred. The plan was for Death Platoon to breach one side of the city while the Marines breached the opposite simultaneously, but like most things in war, things did not go according to plan. The city had been a stronghold for insurgent forces since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Vietnam-era vehicle, which was designed to move through contested and rough ground, raced 60 miles an hour through the rubble-strewn streets of Fallujah before arriving at the train station where the battalion was headquartered. Elliott Ackerman recalls fighting in the Battle of Fallujah. Gone was the need for self-preservation, and in its place was a desire to protect the Soldiers on our left and right. Marines patrol the streets of Fallujah, Iraq during Operation Phantom Fury November, 2004. The insurgent tripped and Bellavia wounded him. He lied and said yes because he wasnt thinking about himself, he was thinking about his fellow Soldiers and the fact they needed him because they had to continue fighting. We moved to a house with one squad. Just five years later, the Islamic State group is seizing portions of Anbar province. Covered in dust, soot, and blood, the Marines stood among the debris and rubble of a city-turned warzone, looking rough and worn, just a few days into the fight. The situation was indicative of the challenge troops faced in Fallujah, where enemy fighters -- with caches of weapons -- hid among civilians. Inside, they found the bodies of two men and a boy aged about 10. When a Marine was shot between the eyes on Nov. 14, there wasnt enough time to wait for a helicopter to arrive at his location, explained Lt. Col. Patrick Gallogly, who was the battalion air officer at the time and was on the radio calling for a casualty evacuation. They were probably killed when their armoured four-wheel-drive vehicle was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade. The details were so vivid, he said. When he entered a bedroom, the wounded insurgent followed, forcing Bellavia to shoot him. Nicholson, now the commanding general of 1st Marine Division, planned a reunion and commemoration here for Marines who fought in the deadly battles in Fallujah. All of us Marines, sailors, soldiers we build teams, we train as teams, we deploy as teams and we fight as teams. Dale Burgerwas severely injured, but returned to his unit just three days later and again led his men back into combat before being killed in action on Nov. 14. Marine snipers using thermal imagers could see the insurgents and shot them through the wall. That's what won that battle. Falluja was never going to welcome the Americans as crowds of Shia Muslims did when US forces arrived in Iraq, in March 2003. There he began a recruitment process to put sharpshooters on Naval vessels to protect them. I dont want to condemn what [Army] people are doing. It facilitated elections in Fallujah, and also in Ramadi and all over Anbar province. David Bellavia was awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions with 2-2 Infantry during the Second Battle of Fallujah (Medal of Honor, n.d.). Marines doctrine was naval centric and flawed They wanted to frontal assault and end fighting quickly so fleet could leave and not be tied down as a sitting duck off . Locals spoke of beheadings in the street. As we settled into our temporary home, we found ourselves assigned a mix of demolition, convoy security, foot patrols, and FOB security missions. (You can find instructions on how to set Outlook as your default email application here.). (Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images) Once we set boots on the ground, we set up shop at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Normandy, an Army post close to the Iranian border. The marines were ordered to retreat. His parents and siblings helped, he said, but he began making real progress when his uncle, who'd seen combat in Vietnam, began talking about his own experiences. Raleigh Smith and Lance Cpl. Read about our approach to external linking. After being severely injured by enemy gunfire,1st Sgt. There was no electricity, running water, or even stairs to access the second floor. From 2004 to 2013, either I or one of my sons was deployed for seven of those nine years. Additionally, more than 250 awards for valor were awarded to the units Marines and sailors for their actions during the operation. More than 250 Marines and soldiers are expected to attend the Nov. 8 event, exactly 15 years after Marines set out to launch the assault. Staff Sgt. During the height of the fight, he was too anxious to eat. In a race to get the wounded man to the care he needed, an Army National Guard unit loaded the Marine into a M113 armored personnel carrier they were using as an armored ambulance. The stories that emerged from that battle are the kind that legends are built on. His family found him in time to stop it. The Marines appear to be withdrawing (or, in U.S. parlance, re-positioning), and 1,100 carefully selected soldiers from the old Iraqi armycommanded by a well-known, former Baathist generalare stepping in to provide security. The bond between us, built and strengthened from our training and previous months of suboptimal conditions (embracing the suck), ultimately allowed every member of Death Platoon to walk out of the house that night alive and together.
