Fallujah: Marine Eye-Witness Report

[R.A. Hettinga]

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<http://www.thegreenside.com/story.asp?ContentID=11151>


The Green Side

Sunday, November 21, 2004



 Email from Dave - Nov 19, 04

Dear Dad -

Just came out of the city and I honestly do not know where to start.  I am
afraid that whatever I send you will not do sufficient honor to the men who
fought and took Fallujah. 

 Shortly before the attack, Task Force Fallujah was built.  It consisted of
Regimental Combat Team 1 built around 1st Marine Regiment and Regimental
Combat Team 7 built around 7th Marine Regiment.  Each Regiment consisted of
two Marine Rifle Battalions reinforced and one Army mechanized infantry
battalion.

Regimental Combat Team 1 (RCT-1) consisted of 3rd Light Armored
Reconnaissance Battalion (3rd LAR), 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines (3/5); 3rd
Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1)and 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry (2/7).  RCT-7
was slightly less weighted but still a formidable force.  Cutting a swath
around the city was an Army Brigade known  as Blackjack.  The Marine RCT's
were to assault the city while Blackjack kept the enemy off of the backs of
the assault force.

The night prior to the actual invasion, we all moved out into the desert
just north of the city.  It was something to see.  You could just feel the
intensity in the Marines and Soldiers.  It was all business.  As the day
cleared, the Task Force began striking targets and moving into final attack
positions.  As the invasion force commenced its movement into attack
positions, 3rd LAR led off RCT-1's offensive with an attack up a peninsula
formed by the Euphrates River on the west side of the city.  Their mission
was to secure the Fallujah Hospital and the two bridges leading out of the
city.  They executed their tasks like clockwork and smashed the enemy
resistance holding the bridges.  Simultaneous to all of this, Blackjack
sealed the escape routes to the south of the city.  As invasion day dawned,
the net was around the city and the Marines and Soldiers knew that the
enemy that failed to escape was now sealed.

3/5 began the actual attack on the city by taking an apartment complex on
the northwest corner of the city.  It was key terrain as the elevated
positions allowed the command to look down into the attack lanes.  The
Marines took the apartments quickly and moved to the rooftops and began
engaging enemy that were trying to move into their fighting positions.  The
scene on the rooftop was surreal.  Machine gun teams were running boxes of
ammo up 8 flights of stairs in full body armor and carrying up machine guns
while snipers engaged enemy shooters.  The whole time the enemy was firing
mortars and rockets at the apartments.  Honest to God, I don't think I saw
a single Marine even distracted by the enemy fire.  Their squad leaders,
and platoon commanders had them prepared and they were executing their
assigned tasks.

As mentioned, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry joined the Regiment just prior to
the fight.  In fact, they started showing up for planning a couple of weeks
in advance.  There is always a professional rivalry between the Army and
the Marine Corps but it was obvious from the outset that these guys were
the real deal.  They had fought in Najaf and were eager to fight with the
Regiment in Fallujah.  They are exceptionally well led and supremely
confident. 

 2/7 became our wedge.  In short, they worked with 3rd Battalion, 1st
Marines.  We were limited in the amount of prep fires that we were allowed
to fire on the city prior to the invasion.  This was a point of some 
consternation to the forces actually taking the city.  Our compensation was
to turn to 2/7 and ask them to slash into the city and create as much
turbulence as possible for 3/1 to follow.  Because of the political
reality, the Marine Corps was also under pressure to "get it done
quickly."  For this reason, 2/7 and 3/1 became the penetration force into
the city. 

 Immediately following 3/5's attack on the apartment buildings, 3/1 took
the train station on the north end of the city.   While the engineers blew
a breach through the train trestle, the Cavalry soldiers poured through
with their tanks and Bradley's and chewed an opening in the enemy defense. 
3/1 followed them through until they reached a phase[line  deep into the
northern half of the city.  The Marine infantry along with a few tanks then
turned to the right and attacked the heart of the enemy defense.  The
fighting was tough as the enemy had the area dialed in with mortars.  3/5
then attacked into the northwest corner of the city.  This fight continued
as both Marine rifle battalions clawed their way into the city on different
axis. 

 There is an image burned into my brain that I hope I never forget.  We
came up behind 3/5 one day as the lead squads were working down the
Byzantine streets of the Jolan area.  An assault team of two Marines ran
out from behind cover and put a rocket into a wall of an enemy
strongpoint.  Before the smoke cleared the squad  behind them  was up and
moving through the hole and clearing the house.  Just down the block
another squad was doing the same thing.  The house was cleared quickly and
the Marines were running down the street to the next contact.  Even in the
midst of that mayhem, it was an awesome sight.

The fighting has been incredibly close inside the city.  The enemy is
willing to die and is literally waiting until they see the whites of the
eyes of the Marines before they open up.  Just two days ago, as a firefight
raged in close quarters, one of the interpreters yelled for the enemy in
the house to surrender.  The enemy yelled back that it was better to die
and go to heaven than to surrender to infidels.  This exchange is a graphic
window into the world that the Marines and Soldiers have been fighting in
these last 10 days.

I could go on and on about how the city was taken but one of the most
amazing aspects to the fighting was that we saw virtually no civilians
during the battle.  Only after the fighting had passed did a few come out
of their homes.  They were provided food and water and most were evacuated
out of the city.  At least 90-95% of the people were gone from the city
when we attacked.

I will end with a couple of stories of individual heroism that you may not
have heard yet.  I was told about both of these incidents shortly after
they occurred.  No doubt some of the facts will change slightly but I am
confident that the meat is correct.

The first is a Marine from 3/5.  His name is Corporal Yeager (Chuck
Yeager's grandson).  As the Marines cleared and apartment building, they
got to the top floor and the point man kicked in the door.  As he did so,
an enemy grenade and a burst of gunfire came out.  The explosion and enemy
fire took off the point man's leg.  He was then immediately shot in the arm
as he lay in the doorway.  Corporal Yeager tossed a grenade in the room and
ran into the doorway and into the enemy fire in order to pull his buddy
back to cover.  As he was dragging the wounded Marine to cover, his own
grenade came back through the doorway.  Without pausing, he reached down
and threw the grenade back through the door while he heaved his buddy to
safety.  The grenade went off inside the room and Cpl Yeager threw another
in.  He immediately entered the room following the second explosion.  He
gunned down three enemy all within three feet of where he stood and then
let fly a third grenade as he backed out of the room to complete the
evacuation of the wounded Marine.  You have to understand that a grenade
goes off within 5 seconds of having the pin pulled.  Marines usually let
them "cook off" for a second or two before tossing them in.   Therefore,
this entire episode took place in less than 30 seconds. 

 The second example comes from 3/1.  Cpl Mitchell is a squad leader.  He
was wounded as his squad was clearing a house when some enemy threw
pineapple grenades down on top of them.  As he was getting triaged, the
doctor told him that he had been shot through the arm.  Cpl Mitchell  told
the doctor that he had actually been shot "a couple of days ago" and had
given himself self aide on the wound.  When the doctor got on him about not
coming off the line, he firmly told the doctor that he was a squad leader
and did not have time to get treated as his men were still fighting.  There
are a number of Marines who have been wounded multiple times but refuse to
leave their fellow Marines.

It is incredibly humbling to walk among such men.  They fought as hard as
any Marines in history and deserve to be remembered as such.  The enemy
they fought burrowed into houses and fired through mouse holes cut in
walls, lured them into houses rigged with explosives and detonated the
houses on pursuing Marines, and actually hid behind surrender flags only to
engage the Marines with small arms fire once they perceived that the
Marines had let their guard down.  I know of several instances where near
dead enemy rolled grenades out on Marines who were preparing to render them
aid.  It was a fight to the finish in every sense and the Marines
delivered. 
 
I have called the enemy cowards many times in the past because they have
never really held their ground and fought but these guys in the city did. 
We can call them many things but they were not cowards.  

 My whole life I have read about the greatest generation and sat in wonder
at their accomplishments.  For the first time, as I watch these Marines and
Soldiers, I am eager for the future as this is just the beginning for
them.  Perhaps the most amazing characteristic of all is that the morale of
the men is sky high.  They hurt for the wounded and the dead but they are
eager to continue to attack.  Further, not one of them would be comfortable
with being called a hero even though they clearly are.

 By now the Marines and Soldiers have killed well over a thousand enemy. 
These were not peasants or rabble.  They were reasonably well trained and
entirely fanatical.  Most of the enemy we have seen have chest rigs full of
ammunition and are well armed are willing to fight to the death.  The
Marines and Soldiers are eager to close with them and the fighting at the
end is inevitably close. 

 I will write you more the next time I come in about what we have found
inside the city.  All I can say is that even with everything that I knew
and expected from the last nine months, the brutality and fanaticism of the
enemy surprised me.  The beheadings were even more common place than we
thought but so were torture and summary executions.  Even though it is an
exaggeration, it seems as though every block in the northern part of the
city has a torture chamber or execution site.  There are hundreds of tons
of munitions and tens of thousands of weapons that our Regiment alone has
recovered.  The Marines and Soldiers of the Regiment have also found over
400 IEDs already wired and ready to detonate.  No doubt these numbers will
grow in the days ahead.

In closing, I want to share with you a vignette about when the Marines
secured the Old Bridge (the one where the Americans were mutilated and hung
on March 31) this week.  After the Marines had done all the work and
secured the bridge, we walked across to meet up with 3rd LAR on the other
side.  On the Fallujah side of the bridge where the Americans were hung
there is some Arabic writing on the bridge.  An interpreter translated it
for me as we walked through.  It read:  "Long Live the Mujahadeen. 
Fallujah is the Graveyard for Americans and the end of the Marine Corps." 
 
As I came back across the bridge there was a squad sitting in their Amtrac
smoking and watching the show.  The Marines had written their own message
below the enemy's.  It is not something that Mom would appreciate but it
fit the moment to a T.  Not far from the vehicle were two dead enemy laying
where they died.  The Marines were sick of watching the "Dog and Pony show"
and wanted to get back to work.

Dave

- -- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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