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BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - As Chaplain Ric Brown recalls it,
the coalition was bracing for an 80 percent casualty rate in the
battle.
He was going to have a busy week.
When the
two-star commander of the attack described the ground force as “the
greatest concentration of combat power on the face of the earth,” it
might have seemed that Regimental Combat Teams 1 and 7 would roll
through the insurgent stronghold easily.
It was an
impressive display of conventional military force, to be sure, but
Phantom Fury was notable as an intensely vicious urban battle. Urban
combat, according to those who have experienced it, is an
exquisitely concentrated expression of all the savagery of war.
It can confuse and exhaust Soldiers. In the first days of the
battle, most got little sleep, either from want of a comfortable
place to rest or from a enemy that gave them none. Fighting in urban
terrain also blurs the lines between civilian and military,
something that can cause extreme emotional trauma.
Soldiers
happened upon the dead haphazardly. According to one account, 25
bodies were found in a single house. Perhaps seeing the victims of
war in what is suppose to be the safest of places—a home—is a mental
incongruity for which Soldiers are never adequately prepared.
Most glaringly, though, urban warfare is close, meaning that
Soldiers often gaze on the faces of those they kill—the fear, the
contortion, the desperation, the hate. It is a throwback to an
ancient form of combat.
Staff Sgt. David Bellavia, one of
Brown's Soldiers, could feel, hear, and smell the enemy as he fought
for his life in small, dark, rooms. He killed an insurgent on the
second night of battle with his bare hands, describing it in
gruesome detail:
“I've got to slow him down or he'll get the
upper hand. I punch him in the face; my fist meets gristle. Then I
remember my helmet.... With both hands I invert the helmet and crack
his face with it. He shrieks with pain. I bring it up again but he
swings his head from side to side and I don't aim my next blow well.
The helmet glances of his shoulder and hits the floor.... He screams
on. I hear footsteps on the roof. I do not have long....
“For a
second I think it's over. He's going to surrender. Then a ripping
pain sears through my arm. He clamped his teeth on the side of my
thumb near the knuckle, and now he tears at it, trying to pull meat
from bone....
“I cuff him across the face with my torn left
hand. He rides the blow and somehow breaks my choke hold on him. I
bludgeon his face. He tears at mine. I feel my strength ebbing. I
don't have much more....
“It takes monumental effort to
unhitch the Gerber from my belt. I pounce on him. My body splays
over his and I drive the knife right under his collarbone. My first
thrust hits solid meat. The blade sinks into him and he wails with
terror and pain.... His eyes swim with hate and terror. They're wide
and dark and rimmed with blood. His face is covered with cuts and
gouges. His mouth is curled into a grimace.... (From House to House:
An Epic Memoir of War.)
The Coalition had conducted a
“whisper campaign” prior to Operation Phantom Fury to encourage
residents to leave. By the time it launched the offensive, the
population of 280,000 had been reduced to some 30,000. The U.S.
military believed 10 percent of the population were insurgents holed
up and ready for an onslaught.
As the three Iraqi
battalions, one U.K. battalion, six U.S. Marine battalions, and
three U.S. Army battalions rumbled through the city, they
encountered a determined and resilient enemy. Insurgents had dug
trenches, booby trapped houses, emplaced road barriers, and
daisy-chained explosives in streets and alleyways.
Fallujah
comprised 39,000 buildings and nearly 400,000 rooms, all of which
had to be perilously and meticulously cleared.
The battle was
an intense exercise in stamina and patience. Fires burned throughout
the city. Stray dogs and cats on the verge of starvation before the
battle feasted on corpses. All the while rockets and bullets flew
toward the coalition Soldiers methodically retaking the city.
For all the horrors of fighting an enemy so ruthless, the
American-led coalition had distinct advantages. “Basher” gunships
lurked overhead ready to pummel confirmed targets. Unmanned aerial
vehicles with night optics denied insurgents any hope of hiding. The
best weaponry—Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, javelins and
tow missiles—were at the disposal of the task force.
And
they were wielded by the best Soldiers who ever went into battle.
By mid-November, most of the heavy resistance had been
overcome, though the stability was tenuous for the next six weeks.
And Fallujah exacted a price. Ninety-five Americans gave
their lives during Phantom Fury, and 560 were wounded.
Brown
was there to minister to them. He also remembers being on litter
duty and filing casualty reports to the rear. He said that tending
to the wounded was not challenging, because he anticipated it. In a
way, it was exactly what he was there to do. He did worry about the
Soldiers' families, but caring for the men who bore the brunt of
combat fulfilled him. In an odd way, it was easy.
Except in
one case:
“There was only one casualty that was brought in
that may have had any life in him before he died. That was 1st Lt.
Edward Iwan. All others were killed on the battlefield and so were
already dead when they were brought to the aid station. Cpt. [Sean]
Sims and I went out into the city to help recover the wounded from
his unit. It also gave me a few moments in the city with my Soldiers
there. I believe it did them good to see me out there.”
Iwan
was the executive officer of Alpha Company—Brown's and Bellavia's
unit. Within 24 hours, their company commander, Sims, would die in
the same hellish urban battlefield.
By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Richard Stowell
Provided through DVIDS
Copyright 2014
Remembering Fallujah Part 1: A
Chaplain, An Infantryman and The
Fallen
Remembering Fallujah Part 2: Preparing For A Battle Against Evil
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