April Fool's Day

On April 1^st 2005 I left Iraq in one piece. I never would have imagined then, that I would be capable of sharing my stories with all of my friends and family. It has been an emotional exercise that I have struggled through and I am excited that I am finished.

We arrived back into the United States in the middle of the night, landing in Bangor, ME. As we came down the jet way we were met with a cheering crowd of total strangers. I wanted to cry and the lump in my throat almost choked me. At all the stops we made, on the way back to Twenty-nine Palms, we were met with a hero's welcome everywhere we went. I remember looking out of the window, as we taxied after landing at March AFB, and seeing fire engines on display with their red, white and blue lights on and water shooting hundreds of feet into the air with a huge spotlight on the American flag.

I hope that we are still doing those things, but I doubt it.

I have a hard time talking with people about what I have done, seen and felt. I have always felt that I didn't deserve the thanks that people were giving me. When my dad dropped me off at the airport I didn't expect to ever see him again.




 

June 14, 2004

I arrived yesterday, back to California, back to the Marines. After a fast couple of days trying to get all of my stuff over to my Dad's while at the same time trying to spend time with family and friends for what felt like was more for them than me. I do not like being in the spotlight. I feel uncomfortable when people tell me thanks for something I have not done.

    My Dad drove me to the airport in mostly silence. We talked about E-470 a road to the airport that nobody takes and other odd subjects to avoid thinking about why I was being taken to the airport. Although the true subject did come up a few times but the conversation never lasted long and always ended with one of us turning up the radio or rolling down a window. We had arrived at the airport. My Dad had offered to park and come in with me – an idea that I had shot down – he removed my sea bag from the trunk and then insisted on a hug, which is unusual for us. I couldn't remember the last time we had hugged. I couldn't help but think about my Grandpa. He had taken me to the airport in 2001 the last time I was overseas and died before I had come back.

The security line at the airport was the longest I had ever been in. I boarded the plane as soon as I got to the gate. I was stuck in the middle seat. I listened to the pilots talk to air traffic control the entire flight on my headphones.

I feel like I have been given a second chance or have cheated death so many times that I have realized how valuable life is. I try now to take time enjoy my life with a different perspective that, I hope, people that read this journal can now maybe see. Not just happy to be alive but I am thankful to have my legs to run, my arms to help a friend move and my eyes to enjoy the view. There are a lot of people that didn't make it home to tell their story. Thank you everybody for reading mine.

Marines, Brothers, Best friends you are the only ones that know the stories that I left out. Both good and bad, I kept some things for myself.


 

My Last Entry

March 16

    We all made it out of Hit, went back to Al Asad and saw Tobias and Sam. Tobias will go home with all of us after the Colonel got involved with his flight arrangements. All the doctors say he needs to go home. Sam White's name was not entered, neither was anyone else on the advanced party list for flights out, so it was nice to see them all again. I was in Al Asad for four days, and then we drove up back to KV where we plan to leave all of our vehicles with 2^nd LAR. We went out to Ah Rutba on the 11^th for two days. Everything was quiet. We were again back in probably the safest place in Iraq.

Photo taken of us being blown up from front of convoy

    Then on the 13^th at about 1500 when we were returning to base my vehicle got hit with an IED just as we began to cross a bridge. We were the 5^th vehicle in the convoy and boom. Nobody saw it coming, not us, not the 4 vehicles in front of us, nobody. The blast forced me into the vehicle, all twisted and turned around. The vehicle was still moving with 6 flat tires. I was buried by my day pack and the Capt.'s helmet, which all fell from the bustle rack into my hole. I turned around to see who was hurt. Boldin's hand was bleeding. Skrabas face swelling up. I stood up and gave the Captain a thumb up, not that we were okay but that we were all alive. The vehicle rolled to a stop about 500m past the blast sight. The Capt. Jumped down and looked at the vehicle, then ran looking for his helmet that I had on the floor. Doc Palten, who was sitting next to me yelled, "Get out, get out!" I crawled out the top and dove onto the road. Doc, taking the same route, was right behind me. He was on fire.

I didn't have a scratch on me. This blast more severe than the first had injured everybody besides me and the driver. That didn't matter we still were alive. The explosion tore through the armored vehicle putting holes the size of basket balls in the hull and dozens of smaller ones every inch of the side exposed to the blast. Doc's pants had caught fire after the laptop in front of him had spit out one of its batteries as shrapnel ripped the computer apart. That Dell saved his life, but not his pants.
We were scheduled to leave country on April 1st but everybody thought it was the cruelest April fools joke ever.  Two weeks until we were home and we almost didn't make it. The Chaos of the Med evac quickly snapped me out of the slow motion fog of being blown up, we were thrown into the "Log", (our LAV ambulance) and a section broke off the main party to escort us back to base at high speed while the rest of the Company went looking for the men who tried to kill me.
When we got to the front gate of KV the lead vehicles stopped to let us drive directly to the Battalion Aid Station. I saw that Barker had been on point and the look on his face of concern was relieved with a thumbs up I gave him as we drove passed.

 

“Let’s get the hell out of here!”

Yesterday was mostly quiet except for a few minutes when Doc Patlan and I almost got hit by mortars. We were sitting in our fighting hole, just shooting the shit, talking about different police departments. Like I said, it was pretty quiet. I even had my helmet off. Then a Humvee pulled up about 75m to our right. At the time we thought nothing of it. But looking back we decided that was what they must have saw and shot at.

The first round fell way short, landing in the middle of the Euphrates. I threw on my helmet and grabbed a hold of my rifle. The second and third round dropped near the Humvee but had missed. The Humvee started up and sped away. Doc and I got deep in the hole. Doc yelled out to Steffen and Walden in the hole next to us asking if everyone was okay. Only seconds later, one dropped in front of us, to the right only about 10m away. Doc, almost on top of me, said, "Let's get the hell out of here!" I replied, "Where the hell are we going to go?" Then another round fell right behind us, exploding on top of a palm tree it hit, knocking palm leaves down. Our ears were ringing but we were okay, everybody was okay.

Doc and I in our hole before the attack.

    

 I woke up this AM. No, I'm missing a day somewhere. Everything is running together. I woke up hearing more mortars, followed by gun fire, then someone yelling for a corpsman. I was mad at myself for not being there; thinking one of my scouts was hurt. But it was an Iraqi kid who had caught some shrapnel, nothing too bad.

Today was filled with sniper fire. One shot hit the building that my scouts were on the roof of. Sgt. White, Sam, stayed in Al Asad and is leaving on advanced party back to the states on the 1^st. So I now have two more scouts and a Doc working for me. Tobias also stayed in Al Asad after breaking his hand by punching a table in Ramadi because he was drunk off some whiskey Louie had got for us. I already miss them both, but Tobias is getting medevac and is probably home by now with his wife, who I'm sure deserves to have him more. I don't think Sam is happy to go back without us. We all want to leave but we want to leave together.

 March 1

    So far, HIT has brought mixed emotions. It was talked about by the command like it was going to be a mini Fallujah. The attitude of everyone seemed the same. Nobody wanted to die after making it this far and almost home.

The City of Hit

We left Ramadi just a few days to FOB hit to link up with the Iraqi freedom guard (IFG). The plan was to move into Hit that night but after another element of the IFG was ambushed the plan changed. We were to go search route bronze for the ambush site. Six IFG in a white SUV. Three escaped. Two captured and one left for dead. We never found them. The next morning we went to the Haditha Dam to refuel and re-supply. That night we drove 5 hours cross country then set up in a coil just outside of the city of Hit. The next morning we moved into our positions along the Euphrates River in a palm grove. We spent the first day digging in and fortifying the perimeter with trip flares and concertina wire. Red PLT to our north engaged a man that on the IFG guys spotted with a mortar tube minutes after an attack. That night again, Red had spotted some activity. There were five guys sneaking around by the bank of the river, on the other side, crawling around and digging, moving things from one place to the other.

    It was around midnight and I was in the turret with Johnstone. We saw them a couple of times but too many palm trees were blocking our shot. For the next hour or so we sat watching through the thermals and listening to Red platoon continue to call the Capt. Over the radio, keeping them updated with what these guys were doing, and almost begging to kill them.

    The Capt. was on their side and became almost belligerent with battalion when they told us we were not authorized to shoot until shot at. This was going against our rules of engagement. We had positively ID'd these men with weapons obviously up to something. Wolfpack (our Battalion call sign)  did not want to "stir the hornets nest" because Force Recon was going into the city at 0300 and we would be pulling into our hot positions for a show of force with Illum. Everyone was afraid that these guys would not still be there at 0300 or even worse, they would shoot at us first. 

    0300 came and they were still there. Cpl. Barker's LAV initiated the attack with a TOW shot across the river and then the 25mm opened up on a steaming pile of body parts. We fought through the night.

The TOW stands for Tube launched, Optically tracked Wire command linked missile system.  The shot that was taken was said to be impossible according to "the book" One of the systems limitations is its inability to be deployed over a body of water. 

Wake up, bad guys!

Feb 23, 2005

   

Today is our 3^rd day in the town of "Hit" and I have been meaning to write in the record for weeks. After the elections, we seemed to step it up a notch and raid a couple of targets before we turned over our zone in Ramadi. The first house we hit with little success. Driving into the village and having mortars provide illumination; I guess we scared them off with them hearing our vehicles. There was said to be around 20 of them fleeing the target house. Nobody we caught was who we were looking for.

The next raid was in the town of  Saqlawiyah. The Capt., myself, and my scout team linked up with Red Plt at OP 11A along with an Italian reporter. We patrolled about 2K into the town at midnight. The first house was on the outskirts of the town. After we had surrounded the house, a green chemlight was cracked and thrown into the air for the signal to move in.

We stormed in kicking the door down and pulled five guys out of bed, along with finding just as many AK's. After zip tying their hands and blindfolding them, we dragged them with us to the next objective. Working our way deeper into the town, we continued to kick down doors, stringing along our train of detainees, hitting all four objectives with the only casualty being my new guy Skraba falling into a waist high puddle of shit.

 We ended up with eleven detainees – all bad guys. Even the HIET (Human/Intelligence Exploitation Team) was surprised at how successful the raid was.

The Elections

Jan 31

    The Iraqi elections were yesterday and I don't yet know how they went. Things seemed strangely on the normal side here at OP.

This is an image that I hope people never forget

     

Yesterday A.M. we went out on an ambush patrol and set in about 2K South of our OP before sunrise. We had suspected that they had been dropping mortars in that area but only saw Shepherds.

Thompson was all the excitement I had that A.m. He was to my right, set in for an ambush watching out back with the saw, and I found him sleeping. I threw a rock at him, surprising myself with my aim and hitting him in the feet. He didn't move. I threw a couple more rocks and then had to go over to him. Staying low, I snuck over there and knelt down putting my knee into his back and told him with an angry whisper, "Wake Up". He started immediately saying he was alert. I stopped him by grabbing his helmet and twisting his head to an uncomfortable position telling him I would deal with him later.

    I finished reading The Da Vinci Code yesterday – a gift Tippie had sent. Now Tobias is reading it. Jo sent me some Vodka and Bourbon along with some pictures of her. Some Copenhagen, some cups and little umbrellas. Shelley sent me some pictures too, of her and her kid, Kyla. I am so thankful for having such great friends back home.

    When we were back at Ramadi this last time, Johnstone got beat up pretty good by Buchanan. I didn't get to see it, but I heard it. Right outside my house. Johnstone and Doc had been going around for weeks antique'ing people. Something they had seen on a CKY movie where they come up on somebody sleeping and throw a handful of flour on their face. When they first had the idea and showed that they weren't just talking by getting a 10lb. bag of flour from the chow hall, I told them if they ever did that to me, I would be right behind them running out of the house barefoot to kick their ass. They gave me a look of disbelief saying, "It's only a joke," and I warned them that they should be careful who they humiliate.

    After antique'ing a few people without incident, they got somebody who didn't like getting woke up by a handful of flour launched into his face.

    I guess Buchanan, who I don't even like, only hit Johnstone two or three times but it was bad. Johnstone's right eye was cut and the next day was almost swollen shut. Scabs on his nose and lip showed up. Now he was the one humiliated.

Phone calls home

Jan 15

Back at FOB Hefner. Today the CG's jump got hit with and IED just down the road and had one urgent surgical medevac. We went to help even though it was Cajun's zone but when a two star general is involved, everybody wants some face time. We arrived just minutes before the bird came in. I've had a lot of time to think while I've been over here and there have also been times that I wished I had time to think. I may not be as religious as I should be but there is no question as to miracles that have occurred. RPG's bouncing of vehicles. RPG's hitting vehicles with no one in the back. Mortars falling only inches from hitting us. Anyway, some call it luck. Not me. And I'm thankful for it.

    I heard today that my friend Ben Barker is back with the company and I'm looking forward to seeing him. I had not talked with my friend Greg Murphy for years and made a point to call him before I left for Fallujah. The talk was good. He had been mad at me for a long time and when someone's mad at me, my last defense is to be mad at them, and that's where we were.

    He told me that he was going to be a Dad and that I was going to be an Uncle. That meant so much to me because I always thought of him as my brother. I have not spoken with him since, but I didn't want to die in Fallujah without "making up". I hope we fall right back into our old ways. I called home just a few days ago. I call home more than I thought that I would, but it's more for them than me. First my Dad, we spoke for a good while. I told him about Sgt. Davis and all the dead Iraqi's. I hadn't planned on letting them back home know that kind of thing but it went okay. I called my Mom and knew that we wouldn't talk long but just wanted to say hi. She said to me, "You're still in California, right?" I was shocked.

The War is not Over

Jan 10

I see more dead bodies in one day, than anyone should have to see in a lifetime. I am numb.

Not more than a week ago, while conducting a route recon of "Golden" we discovered 8 dead bodies in the middle of the desert, all blindfolded and hands tied behind them, lined up and shot while standing. Bullet casings 7.62 scattered on the ground ten feet in front of them. They had been killed not more than 24 hours before we found them. Their clothes were still soaked in blood and the dogs had only begun to eat them. We informed the Iraqi police and days later the bodies were still there.

We are in Ramadi now. Have been for a little over a month. We work out of Camp Ramadi and every three days we drive about an hour east to FOB Hefner (Forward operating base)Everything was going well. We fell into our routine and were planning on smooth sailing until we went back home.

FOB Hefner

On January 6^th Sgt. Davis was killed. While taking blankets to another OP to be given out to Iraqi's, a piece of shrapnel from an IED went through his head. I wish that I would have known him better but am glad I didn't. It would have just made it harder.

We took his body back to Camp Ramadi and had his driver,Kliff, over to the house. Johnstone had got a ½ gallon of Crown Royal in the mail and we drank to a fallen marine.

When I say that we had fallen into our routine, I am admitting that we were guilty of becoming complacent.  Everywhere you look in Iraq you see signs that read Complacency Kills. You were told stories of Marines that had died with ipods in there hands and in there sleeping bags instead of alert and on watch.  I am not saying that anything done different would have saved Sgt. Davis. It woke us up that we were not home yet and there are people that are trying to kill us.

Christmas in Ramadi

 I had not written in my journal for over a month, and still it will be several weeks before I make another entry.  I did not want to think about what was happening anymore.  I detached from it and for good reason. We made it out of Fallujah. A lot of people did not. It was hard to not see the people that we started with still around. During battle everything moves so fast and when somebody is killed or injured you have no time to stop, you just get them out of the way and hope you see them again someday, and then keep fighting.

 I had not written in my journal for over a month, and still it will be several weeks before I make another entry.  I did not want to think about what was happening anymore.  I detached from it and for good reason.  We made it out of Fallujah. A lot of people did not. It was hard to not see the people that we started with still around.  During battle everything moves so fast and when somebody is killed or injured you have no time to stop, you just get them out of the way and hope you see them again someday, and then keep fighting. 
We were sent to Camp Ramadi where we were able to make repairs to our vehicles, re-supply and most of all get some rest and hot food.  We had small temp buildings to live in that slept 10 of us.  We made it our home by decorating the walls with Christmas cards and pictures of naked girls. We hung Christmas lights and even put up a tree. We had not been receiving our mail while conducting Operation Phantom Fury, so when the mail finally caught up with us, just before Christmas, it was overwhelming.  There are few things in life that can make a Marine as happy as when he gets a letter at mail call. Thanks everybody.

Christmas Caroling

 It was different being back "inside the wire" we could use the phone, take hot showers, watch movies and relax.  Everybody could sleep at the same time without somebody being up to keep watch.  We woke up when we wanted to and had little to do in-between meals. We had what they call "the thousand yard stare".  Not only were we being resupplied with gear and ammo but people also. Not everybody in camp had been through what we had and some had not even set foot outside the wire.  I remember sitting in the chow hall eating, with only a few of the guys from my team.  Not exactly sure what it was but there was an explosion. I didn't even acknowledge the blast as I was in the middle of eating, but what happened next I will never forget.  I heard what I at first thought was debris landing on the roof, it was a sound like a hail storm hitting a tin roof that had just turned violent, and as I was trying to figure this all out I looked around and realized what was happening. The tables and chairs that everybody sat at to eat were all plastic folding picnic tables and outdoor cheap plastic chairs. There were probably two or three hundred people eating at that time and after the blast most of them, if not all of them fell to the ground. The sound of debris hitting the roof was not that at all but instead the scraping of the cheap plastic chairs being kicked out from under everybody as they lunged for cover. Me and the guys I was with looked at each other laughing after realizing how afraid everybody was. The joke was followed by another realization that we have been through something that has changed us, we were no longer laughing.

Surf and Turf Thanksgiving

  The last few days that we were in Fallujah were slower.  We had time to walk around and sleep.  It was also a time that I struggled with as one of our missions had been to block Iraqis from swimming across the Euphrates river.  Sgt. White talks about this in his book as "like shooting fish in a barrel"  Click on the picture of him playing the mandolin to read about it.
  

Nov 20,2004

    Things have slowed down the past few days. We have been finding things to do on our roof to help the time pass now that we are not getting shot at as much. Mario Tobias, the driver for our LAV, found some onions and that started it. After the grilled onions we made flat bread, then donuts with cinnamon and yesterday, I bought some eggs while on patrol and we had them today for breakfast.

    Yesterday we patrolled through a village where we had taken fire from days before. Things went smoothly. We took over 100 detainees and found a couple weapons caches. Days earlier when we made contact we killed nine of them and Wilson was the first CIC guy to be shot. From what I've heard, he will be okay. He was shot in the calf, in and out. A guy with him got jacked up, shot in the pelvis. A LAV from 3^rd Plt. was hit by a R-PG. It went right through the scout compartment. Lucky for the scouts they were not in it.

  The looks that we got as we returned to base camp were those of respect.  Everybody had been watching us on TV all month. They had been seeing our wounded and dead being flown in and out.  They knew what we had been going through yet they had no idea.  We walked with a strut. 

Nov 28th,2006

We got back inside the wire on Thanksgiving Day just in time to have a huge Thanksgiving meal. Yesterday we celebrated the 229^th birthday of the Marine Corps – late (10 Nov). After the cake cutting ceremony and a steak and lobster tail dinner, we were given 2 Budweiser and a shooter of Bacardi. Somehow I ended up drinking 4 beers and three shooters. Everybody had a good time.

It was more in celebration of still being alive than the birthday or Thanksgiving. We fought those bastards for almost 20 days straight. We killed more than I can count. We detained hundreds if not a thousand. We destroyed their city, and they still have the will to fight. They won't give up. Nobody could expect it to happen overnight. I can not put into words the satisfaction of taking control of the bridge were the Iraqi's hung four American civilian security contractors.

I am glad that I survived but wish that we all would of.  I am proud of how my men fought and without loosing our moral compass.  Not everybody in that city was the enemy, but it was hard to tell sometimes. 

The memories of that Thanksgiving have so far stayed with me through the years as my reason to give thanks.  To have survived the bloodiest battle of the war and to have had my men survive as well, is something that I am grateful for often, but always on Thanksgiving.  Although some Marines woke up in Germany and some not at all, I know that the Marines that wake up today are happy to be alive. 

I believe the memories of Fallujah will stay with me forever, and there are to many to write down and a lot that I will never share.  They are the ones that choke me up hearing the National Anthem and let me watch the fireworks on the fourth of July as more than just a show.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I meet a girl

Nov 16

I've had a hard time keeping up with this General's log. It seems that so much can happen in a day. Anyway EOD's (explosive ordnance disposal) scouts pushed to the East clearing the houses we had just engaged, finding nobody – dead or alive.

    We continued with the mission moving slow, finding one IED (improvised explosive device) after the next. Watching around us Thompson turned and said to me that they were shooting at the Cobras (helicopters). I looked up to see the second, surface to air, missile launched into the sky. I quickly shot an Azimuth with my compass at its point of origin or as people like to say, it's "POO". Ha Ha

   

I think that I had impressed the Capt with my quick thinking to get an azimuth of the launched missile.  I remember he was at least surprised, then excited realizing he had a chance to get these guys.  He quickly had his maps in front of him on the radio calling for fire. 
To call for a fire mission, like I had done several days before, is when you give the known location of yourself and then the distance and direction (azimuth)  of the enemy.  Then, maybe miles away, a mortar platoon or artillery launches shells into the sky. One at a time at first, allowing you to see where they land and make adjustments to have the bombs drop right on top of the enemy. Once you are on target, you "fire for effect" and watch as the fire rains down.  All of this happening in the time it takes for a helicopter to crash.

 The helicopter dropped in elevation behind us, and then flew to our front where I couldn't see it land in a farm field. One pilot was okay while the other had shrapnel to his back and a broken arm. The injured pilot was ground medevacked and minutes later I handed the captain yellow smoke to mark an LZ (landing zone )for a 46 to pick up their pilot. He popped smoke and tossed it in the middle of the road about 30 meters from us. I didn't expect for the helicopter to land right on the smoke, but they did.

    The first pilot stayed back to provide security for the downed bird and we continued our mission. It was taking a lot longer than we had thought and had become dark. We had been finding IED's then trying to detonate them by shooting them with the .50 caliber or 25mm. If that didn't work we would have EOD come up and blow them in place. There would always be a countdown to detonation, or a heads up before someone engaged. But when I heard a nearby blast without either of those two things happening, I knew something was wrong.

 

   

A reserve battalion from Texas and Louisiana call sign "Cajun" had dismounts patrolling both sides of the road looking for wires leading up the road to an IED. Since it was now dark they were pretty much dragging their feet, hoping to trip over one. They had found one and followed it up to the road where it blew them up. The Captain called for an Air Medevac, but by the time Gunny had loaded up the casualties (2 urgent surgical, 2 urgent, and 1 priority) and two routine – the birds were coming in. I jumped out the back of my vehicle and cracked the two green chem-lights I had tied to the end of a bootlace I had taken off my K BAR and began swinging them over my head to mark the LZ with the "Buzz-saw". Two CH-46's landed right in front of me. The wind almost knocked me over. I met the flight nurse on the road, a woman. Even with everything going on, I still noticed and thought for a second, but could not recall the last time I talked to a girl face to face. She asked where the casualties were and where the corpsman was. I took her to the back of the log ,where the casualties had been loaded , and walked up just as the doors were swinging open. Doc jumped out and began talking with the nurse, yelling over the noise of the helicopter. I grabbed a corner of the liter with the most critical patient and began  running  him to the first bird. It was dark and loud, so I saw no blood, but I did notice how bad he was shaking. He was going into shock. We got him in and I went back for the next. He did not seem to be in as bad of shape as the first but heavier. We still got him there with a quick jog and just like that the helicopters flew away.

    That mission took us 25 hours to drive no more than 5 miles, finding a total of anywhere between 15 and 20 IED's. I had lost count.

I witness a miricle

 Nov 14

We are parked outside the Wolfpack CP, after bringing LCPL Aricidino here for Medevac. We were on the rooftop just finishing up eating breakfast when we were engaged from across the river. Dino was hit in the top right side of his back SAPI plate by a .50 CAL, knocking him off his feet. But there was no blood and he will be okay.

As I read what I had written I remember it being a lot more dramatic.  I try to understand why I would have watered it down so much.  I think that exhaustion had a lot to do with it, we had been fighting for days.  although it seemed as though things had begun to calm down, they hadn't. When we came under fire it was not a couple pot shots, we were being engaged.  I remember seeing Dino spin around as his feet came out from under him, I thought he was dead.  As the Doc made his way to us we searched for the location of our attackers and I don't even remember what the outcome of that was.  I made my way over to Dino only to find him sitting up with his shirt cut off.   This is a miracle.

The Sapi plate was a new technology that was designed to stop small arms fire, not .50 caliber rounds.  you can see how close it came to both missing the plate and even penetrating it. 

Just a few days ago we were tasked with clearing Route Boston from Vehicle Check Point 2 South to Route Iron. We had just stepped off. We had two tanks in front , then Cajun1/23 with dismounts clearing the shoulders of the road, them first then us with EOD in trace. We went not even 50 meters and were ambushed. The tanks took 3 RPG hits and one flew right in front of us hitting an oil tank elevated. The Capt. saw where the 4^th one had come from and took control of the turret traversing left and throwing a three round burst into the house.

I think that this was the first time that I had traveled outside of our CP since we began Phantom Fury.  The Cajun unit was an Army reserve company that we had attached to to help get us off the peninsula.  What had happened was as we came in hard and fast, the Iraqis had came in behind us.  We were trapped, pinned down, boxed in.  How could we have been so dumb.  We were going to have to fight our way out. 

Fog of War

Since I rode with the Company Commander we were in search for an ideal spot to set up his command post the driveway that we had just escaped had not provided us with any cover.  I made a mistake.  We walked down that drive with flashlights which I believe is what provided them a target. I am thankful that nobody was killed because of it. 

We turned down the next corner and again dismounted to patrol in front of the vehicles. McDonald made it from the back of the vehicle to the front before he passed out from his concussion. I was on the left side of the road and he was on the right. I ran over and sat him up by yanking his Flak. When he sat up he woke up and jumped to his feet not knowing where he was, spinning and pointing his rifle in every direction. Thompson reported more shots coming from the front.

The confusion of battle is described as the fog of war in which there no longer is a clear plan as to what you are doing, just reacting to whats going on without the confidence of whether you are making the right decisions.  McDonald was injured. We were taking fire and the mission of finding a place to set up command was still a priority.

    We medevaced McDonald and found our CP. Scouts cleared two huge houses and set up our LPOP (listening post/observation post) on the roof of the house on the West bank of the Euphrates. Everything was quiet for a couple of hours. Then it began to rain. The lightning from the storm gave away our position and we watched as an anti-aircraft gun walked its tracers down from the sky on to our rooftop. We returned fire, as did the LAV's on the ground. They stopped shooting at us with the AA gun, but small arms continued through the night.

Nobody slept that night.  We fought in the rain.  I was terrified. The fog had lifted and we knew what we needed to do.  We killed them before they killed us.  With the night almost over and the realization that we had survived, I remember thinking that it seemed that night had lasted a week.  How I had been blown up only hours ago and thinking if I would see McDonald again, I wouldn't. 

When the sun rose we saw at least a dozen sandbag reinforced fighting positions that we had taken out in the through the night. Things were quiet until two RP-G's were launched at us from a house just off to our south on the other side of the river, one bouncing off of black 4's LAV.  My scouts engaged as I called for fire with the 81mm mortars. After two adjustments, I fired for effect with the rounds dropping right on top of the house. I shot three more fire missions through out the day.

Phantom Fury

The Second Battle of Fallujah — code-names
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 7^th 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 

Trying to decide how to explain the pain that is quickly replaced by adrenalin and anger I have decided is not possible, or maybe I just did. 

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.

Leaders Recon

Sgt. Sam White "posing" to yell

After arriving in Fallujah, we set up camp at an old Army base called now camp Manhattan.   They gave us a building to sleep in  with no electricity and buried behind weeds that needed to first be removed.  We found ourselves sitting outside not only because it was dark without lights but because we all wanted to be together....and there were some bats inside.

As the U.S. was beginning to mobilize around the city, planes overhead were dropping fliers warning the civilian citizens to get out.  They knew that we were about to invade and in just a few days the largest offensive to date in the war in Iraq was about to be underway.  There was an uneasy tension in the air at camp.  A kind of giddy, slap happy immaturity, nobody was ready to die and we were trying to do everything we could to keep ourselves from thinking about that.      

The leaders recon is a standard practice and is just what it says.  The leaders of the unit go out ahead of the main element and take a look at where they will be operating.  We also used this time as an opportunity to meet with Iraqi locals that sometimes were helpful and other times were not.  We would go from a village to the one next to it and the local attitudes towards Americans would be completely opposite.  They want pictures with you in one, and then down the road the kids are throwing rocks at you.

The next day was not as long. I sat in the turret with Johnstone while Capt. Conway and again with Lt. Pittson went on a leaders recon. Listening on the radio to a tow vehicle call in an anti-air gun spotted across the Euphrates. I was entertained by the radio traffic. Picturing me as the TOW gunner begging to get authorization, permission to shoot and then you could hear the mortars starting to land.

The TOW was the weapon system that I had been trained to operate during my first enlistment, after volunteering to go to Iraq I was made to be a scout team leader.  TOW stands for Tube launched, Optically tracked, Wire command linked guided missile system.

The next couple of days we began to set up vehicle checkpoints. Everyday we would be in the same place for hours and then we would get mortared. After the mortar attack we would find an IED the hard way. Our first casualty in the company was a Marine named Risides. The mortars landed as close to 30m from me. We displaced and headed north on Boston looking for the mortar position. When we came back south on Boston we pulled off to see the mortar craters. We were passed by 2nd Plt. and then fell in behind them. I heard over the intercom "Holy Fuck" as the Capt. and Johnstone saw the blast.
A second later I heard it. Then over the radio, LT. Edo saying they have been hit by the IED and have a casualty.

We stopped right in front of a wire going across the road into a pile of dirt. I had cleared possible IED's before but never seconds after one had gone off less than 100 m away. But when the Capt. told me to check it out, there was no hesitation. As soon as I made it to the front of our vehicle I saw the wire and knew it was not a threat. I reached down yanked the wire out of the ground and ran back to my vehicle catching a little of the medevac going on in front of us.
It was a taxicab with its hood up on the side of the road that was detonated as we rolled by.