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. Bush administration to “surge” additional forces to Iraq, placing the conduct of the “surge” and its aftermath in the second volume.OPERATION PHANTOM FURY/AL-FAJR From the OCT 2010 files of SOF This volume concludes with a review of the decision by the George W. The narrative continues by examining the road to war, the initially successful invasion, and the rise of Iraqi insurgent groups before exploring the country’s slide toward civil war. and Iraqi forces during the interwar years. Volume 1 begins in the truce tent at Safwan Airfield in southern Iraq at the end of Operation DESERT STORM and briefly examines actions by U.S. Presented principally from the point of view of the commanders in Baghdad, the narrative examines the interaction of the operational and strategic levels, as well as the creation of theater level strategy and its implementation at the tactical level. Marine Corps, and special operations forces. This study reviews the conflict from a Landpower perspective and includes the contributions of coalition allies, the U.S. Army in the Iraq War is the Army’s initial operational level analysis of this conflict, written in narrative format, with assessments and lessons embedded throughout the work. To date, few official studies have been conducted to review what happened, why it happened, and what lessons should be drawn.
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