Fallujah

Coalition forces conduct a 12-hour air bombardment focusing on the city’s south and southeast to mislead the insurgents about the direction of the attack. After the airstrike, U.S. troops follow with artillery or mortars. Next,…

November 10, 2004Crossing Fran Javelin missiles shriek through the sky. Machine gunners fire from the rooftops. Artillery thumps in the distance moments before a thunderstorm of steel rain pours around us. Phase Line Fran was a…

In November 2004, I was a 19-year-old lance corporal assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. We were at al-Asad, an air base in Iraq, when we were told to pack only what we could carry. We strapped our packs to the sides of…