The link above is for the first battle of Fallujah.

I was in the second Battle of Fallujah. Also called Operation Phantom Fury or Peration Al Fajr.

LINK

The first battle was in the immediate aftermath of the Blackwater killings. The Marine commanders were actually opposed to assaulting the city. They recommended a series of pinpoint raids to bring the killers to justice. The WH disagreed and the Marines went in. After a few days and heavy casualties the Marines were told to cease their assault. What was called the "Fallujah Brigade" was formed to police the city and quell the violence. This didn't exactly work out and Fallujah became basically home base for the insurgency in Iraq with zero American presence in the city.

In November of 2004 the decision was made to retake the city once and for all. It was basically a few thousand Marines on line pushing through the city from the North. It was very bloody for both sides. Basically the exact opposite of what you normally envision when you think about the Iraq war. There actually was a front line. The problem was that it was highly publicized and eventually became a rallying cry for the insurgents in Iraq. It really was on of the turning points of the war and probably eventually produced more insurgents than we actually killed, and we killed a frickton of them.

quote:
What were your thoughts on black water contractors? Did you respect them? Fighting for the same intentions?

Didn't run into many of them over there. I think most of the guys just want ed to make a decent paycheck for their families. Some of them truly wanted to do their part for their country, and some of them were trigger happy psychos. I think what's important to consider is that for all intents and purposes these guys were a military force in Iraq. Maybe not in our eyes but certainly in the eyes of every Iraqi. There's really no disputing it. They were part of the war effort and they were armed. Their uniform was cargo pants and cool shades as opposed to desert camouflage.

Here's a video that will give a pretty good feel for the battle.

Warning: GRAPHIC

This post was edited on 7/11/14 at 4:23 pm

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Posted by MrCarton

Paradise Valley, MT

Member since Dec 2009

20231 posts

Posted on 7/12/14 at 12:46 am to GeauxxxTigers23

Thanks for the Vid link. I think I saw that very one a few years ago. You can tell a lot about the conditions of the battle by the how sallow everyone's complexion is. It only takes a few days for the fat on the neck and face to melt away there aren't enough MREs in the world to make those uniforms stop sagging

. The guys who did this operation (like yourself) will always have a unique insight and experience to share with others. I wish we could have had more input from the grunts that were there into other operations in theater for the next 6 or so years. Unfortunately other units were either too proud or too stupid to get some free advice that you guys paid for. I have much respect for your unit and others that gutted out Phantom Fury. As the war went on after Phantom Fury, American forces never really saw such a high concentration of insurgents in a single city. Hawijah, near kirkuk, and Baquba, in Diayala Province were the only two cities that even remotely resembled the same level on enemy concentration (even those cities were not comperable). The battle of Hawijah was much shorter lived, and it took almost 4 years of buildup in Baquba for insurgents to put any sort of dent in US forces. I think Fallujah was successful in some ways in that foreign fighters could no longer believe that US forces wouldn't come in a clean and sweep such a large area. FFs started spreading out and reducing their footprint across Iraq after Fallujah because of how determined your unit was. Without such an inspiring performance in fallujah I think it is likely that US forces would have had to deal with similar situations in many other cities in Western and north Western Iraq.

quote:
The Marine commanders were actually opposed to assaulting the city. They recommended a series of pinpoint raids to bring the killers to justice. The WH disagreed and the Marines went in. After a few days and heavy casualties the Marines were told to cease their assault. What was called the "Fallujah Brigade" was formed to police the city and quell the violence. This didn't exactly work out and Fallujah became basically home base for the insurgency in Iraq with zero American presence in the city.

Awesome perspective man.

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Posted by bhtigerfan