Operation Al-Fajr (Arabic, "the dawn") and Operation Phantom Fury — was a joint U.S.-Iraqi -British offensive in November and December 2004. It was led by the U.S. Marine Corps against the Iraqi insurgency stronghold in the city of Fallujah and was authorized by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Interim Government.
The U.S. military called it "some of the heaviest urban combat U.S. Marines have been involved in since the Battle of Huế City in Vietnam in 1968."
This operation was the second major operation in Fallujah. Earlier, in April 2004, Coalition Forces fought the First Battle of Fallujah in order to capture or kill insurgent elements considered responsible for the deaths of a Blackwater Security team. When Coalition Forces (a majority being U.S. Marines) fought into the center of the city, the Iraqi government requested that control of the city be turned over to an Iraqi-run local security force, which then began stockpiling weapons and building complex defenses across the city in mid-2004.
The Second Battle of Fallujah was the bloodiest battle of the Iraq War and has been the bloodiest battle of the twenty-first century to date.
 |
| Minutes before War |
The unease that had been following us from Korean Village had settled into a calm. We had been given our orders and we were all very quite. I remember that we decided to play poker while we waited. It was a brilliant idea to keep our minds off what was to be ahead.
On Nov 7th at 1900 we stepped of from ASP Rock to begin Operation Phantom Fury. 20 minutes later my vehicle was hit by an IED. We are guessing it was two 155 rounds buried on the right side of the road. The blast was tremendous. I had my back to it since I ride on the left side and it felt like I had been hit by a bus. My whole body was thrown forward by the blast, then falling into the vehicle through the scout hatch ,turned around upside down and feeling inside out. I had thought I had been hit.
 |
| These are the craters left from the explosion |
McDonald who was riding on the side of the blast also did not get hit by any shrapnel but was screaming that he could not hear. As the LAV kept moving the confusion continued. I checked that McDonald was not bleeding from the ears and kept asking the others if they were okay. We had stopped and Doc Patlen came up to assess McDonald and seemed relieved that it was just a loss of hearing. McDonald, angry as hell just kept screaming that he was okay and just could not hear. Doc said to make sure he did not go to sleep and we pushed forward. Looking for a place to set up the CP, the Capt. had the scouts out to open a gate to an Iraqi house. We were met by 4 Iraqi's who we sat down on the road by gunpoint. Thompson stayed with them as the rest of us opened the gate and began patrolling down the long driveway. McDonald was still unable to hear. The vehicle was 30-40 meters behind us when we came under fire from across the river. We all dropped into the prone as we saw tracers fly over our heads and heard the rounds whizzing by and hitting the tree branches in front of us. Within seconds the captain returned fire with the 25mm. We had no targets to engage from the prone and moved back to the vehicle. Johnstone had got them; he said at least 4. So the shooting had stopped but we still got the hell out of there.
No comments:
Post a Comment