They turned over control to the Fallujah Brigade, which was comprised of Iraqi Army and police officers, most of whom were sympathetic to the enemy. It ended on 1 May, 2004, with the withdrawal of the US Marines who were now drawing sharp criticism for the collateral damage being caused and the death of civilians within the city. It was a tough battle which cost the lives of 27 Coalition troops. Operation Vigilant Resolve was launched on 4 April, 2004, and involved several thousand US Marines. Several days after the killing of those contractors the US launched the first assault on Fallujah, codenamed Operation Vigilant Resolve. In April of 2004, Blackwater Security contractors passing through Fallujah were caught in an ambush and killed their bodies were burned and hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. It wasn’t until my arrival at Camp Pendleton, CA that the Fleet Marine Force taught me what being a Marine was all about. I began training on my own to learn Iraqi-dialect Arabic. I didn’t waste my time, however, at this duty station, as I took advantage of every training opportunity presented to me in weapons, shooting and tactics. Security forces was a sit and wait-type duty, and with the images of the war raging on the nightly news and in the pages of magazines, I spent most of my time there biting my nails in eagerness to join the war effort. I volunteered for this task as I felt I was long overdue to get boots on the ground and was eager to get into country. I left several weeks ahead of my unit as I had volunteered to act as the non-commissioned officer in charge (NCOIC) of our unit’s gear shipment. After we had dispensed thousands of rounds in marksmanship training, advanced CQB shooting, reaction drills, room clearing and urban patrolling, our time to deploy arrived. I was new to the unit and had to build a bond quickly as these men would be side by side with me fighting block by block, house by house, through a heavily populated and dense city. 3/5 was set to invade the city of Fallujah and the unit prepared stateside by training in urban warfare, close quarters battle (CQB), and security and stability operations. I had just gotten off of a two-year stint in security forces at the special weapons facility in Kings Bay, GA, and made my way to one of the US Marine Corps’ most decorated units. I was an infantry corporal in 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment (3/5), Kilo Company, 1st Marine Division. SIDE BY SIDE BLOCK BY BLOCK HOUSE BY HOUSE Because until December of 2004 Fallujah was enemy-occupied, the enemy had months to prepare defensive positions, place improvised explosive devices (IEDs), learn the terrain, and work on plans to disrupt our advances. Fallujah now has a mythical name to it that was built on the blood and sweat of those who served there between Jan 2004–March 2005. Although tens of thousands of Americans cycle through the desert each year, some on multiple tours, only 15,000 saw action during the two battles that took place in Fallujah. It remains to this day the bloodiest battle of the War on Terror. It was said to be the fiercest urban combat the US had fought since the Battle of Hue, Vietnam in 1968.
The Battle of Fallujah was codenamed Operation Phantom Fury/Al-Fajr (the Dawn) and it played out very differently than other battles of the war. None of the Marines in my unit knew that on this day we would encounter the fiercest combat we were to face in Iraq. The press had lost interest by this point and moved on, leaving the events of this day mostly unreported.
The intense, daily fighting of the battle calmed down as we were re-clearing houses and mopping up the little resistance that remained. I Fought in the Fiercest Urban Combat the US had fought since the Battle of Hue, Vietnam in 1968Īs I sit back and reflect on my time at war, no combat experience sticks out more clearly than the combat we saw on 12 December, 2004.
OPERATION PHANTOM FURY/AL-FAJR From the OCT 2010 files of SOF
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