Desgrosseilliers rushed to the fight. One of his men was trapped inside, so he stacked Marines along the outside wall at the front of the house. Just as he reached the wall an enemy grenade bounced on the ground and came to rest at his feet. Without thinking, Desgrosseilliers pushed the two closest Marines against the wall and tried to shield them with his body just as the wire-wrapped concussion grenade exploded. Pieces of wire ripped into Desgrosseilliers’ legs and the shock knocked him senseless. Had the grenade been a frag12, the odds are that all three Marines would have been killed. The two shielded Marines dragged the stunned major around the corner.
It took a few minutes for Desgrosseilliers to shake off the shock of the explosion and regain his composure. When he did, he moved along the outside wall, shot the lock from an outer door, and the trapped Marine rushed back into the street. Desgrosseilliers rallied his men and set about making sure that no more Americans were in the building. Together, Desgrosseilliers and his Marines moved back inside the house, where they found the enemy pouring down the stairs. The Marines opened fire, riddling the first fighters with bullets. More fanatics lobbed hand grenades to the first floor and followed them, screaming “Allahu Akbar!” Desgrosseilliers and his men cut them down, too, piling bodies at the foot of the stairs.
Once he was certain that no other Marines were trapped, Desgrosseilliers ordered his men to fall back and regroup in the street. With only the enemy left inside, he cordoned off the block and directed heavy machine gun and tank main gun rounds into the stronghold.
When the enemy fled to the roof, Desgrosseilliers and his Marines pressed the attack, moving to the roof of an adjacent house to get at them. They lobbed grenade after grenade onto the enemy’s rooftop, balcony, and into the windows. McNulty’s Kilo Company moved in to assist Task Force Bruno with his Fire Support Team and a platoon of Marines. Once on scene, Kilo’s FiST called in mortar fire to pummel the insurgent positions.
Major Desgrosseilliers had one last surprise for the bad guys holding up inside the barricaded house. With attack aircraft waiting overhead, he ordered all of his Marines to fall back, but to continue to maintain the perimeter. None of Task Force Bruno’s Marines would die today. Once the Marines were in safe positions—even though a mere sixty meters from the target—he called in a waiting jet to drop a 500-pound bomb. The direct hit demolished the house and killed everyone inside.
Nine Marines had been wounded, but none had lost their lives.
Deadly Gunfight
With sunset approaching, Captain McNulty ordered his Second and Third Platoon Marines to move north from MICHIGAN into the schoolhouse northeast of the Janabi Hospital along DONNA, where they would go firm for the night. Along with the company’s supporting tanks, McNulty and First Platoon moved east from Task Force Bruno’s fight to link up with the rest of Kilo Company.
Once they reached the school, Second Lieutenant Colin Browning, Third Platoon’s commander, ordered his men back out into a row of houses designated as the 915 Block to get bedding. With winter approaching, the Fallujah nights had turned bitter cold. The houses ran along the northern edge of the Janabi Hospital, sixteen houses long and two houses deep. One of Second Platoon’s squads also joined in, taking the northern road and searching each of the sixteen houses that faced north. Third Platoon moved along the southern road, entering each of the sixteen southern-facing homes.
Clearing this last block should have been routine. After all, it was right across the street from RCT-7’s former command post. Thirty-two more houses to clear, and then McNulty’s Marines could rest for the night. All was quiet for most of the block.
Arellano’s men had finished clearing for the day, so they headed for the school. As soon as Arellano arrived, he climbed to the roof with Sergeant Gage Coduto, Corporal Jonathan Herren, and his platoon commander, Second Lieutenant Todd Moulder.13 As Moulder and the company XO, Lieutenant Diaz, worked to set up defenses at the school, Arellano’s squad left the school to join in the search for blankets. Third Squad moved into the houses just south of the school and east of the 915 block hoping to find anything that could help keep them warm during the evening hours. Arellano stayed behind on the school roof with his platoon commander.
Back on the long skinny 915 Block, Arellano’s good friend Corporal Jason Clairday led his squad into the eleventh northern house. Sergeant Jeffery Kirk split his 3rd Squad Marines: some entered the eleventh and twelfth southern houses, while others moved to a building in the Janabi Hospital complex across the street to provide overwatch for the foraging Marines.
Corporals Ian Stewart and David Cisneros and Lance Corporal Chad Pioske entered the eleventh southern house. Cisneros and Pioske cleared the bottom floor while Stewart went up the stairs to clear the second floor. When Stewart entered an upstairs bedroom, shots rang out: he had encountered the first group of a platoon-sized enemy force. Stewart went down in the open doorway, mortally wounded. He called for help, and when Cisneros and Pioske charged for the stairs to get to their friend, gunfire and grenades rained down on them from a dozen insurgents holed up in the second-floor bedrooms. Cisneros and Pioske fell back, unable to reach Stewart.
Arellano hadn’t been at the school for more than five minutes when the gunfire erupted. “That’s our Marines in contact!”14 Arellano exclaimed. He turned and sprinted down the stairs, taking two, three, and four at a time to reach the street, where he could see his squad running west toward the fight. Arellano ran to join them. As he shot past the gun trucks and AMTRACs, he pointed and yelled for them to turn around. More Marines poured out of the school and rushed to the sound of the gunfire.
Sergeant Jeffrey Kirk and Staff Sergeant Melvin Blazer were in the house next door when Stewart was gunned down. Kirk had just returned to duty after having been wounded on November 10. He had given the medical staff such a hard time that they finally relented and let him check out to return to Kilo Company. The sergeant moved outside and started looking for another way to get to the enemy on the second floor. He moved west and found a narrow alley between the stronghold and the next house. He was turning to enter the alley when he was shot in the head. Did Kirk have a premonition that he would not return home when he framed one of his poems and gave it to his mother?
The things my mother taught me.
The important things are always the hardest to do.
Love is not just about making someone happy; it’s about what’s best for them, even if it hurts.
Patience is not a virtue that comes easily.
Joy is found wherever you choose to look for it.
Being a loving and courageous parent is infinitely better than a rich parent.
Never regret a mistake you learn from.
We are the sum of our decisions, sacrifices, principles and accomplishments—make them good ones.
Just as Kirk made his ultimate sacrifice, Arellano reached the house where Stewart was still trapped. Cisneros, Pioske, and others tried repeatedly but in vain to rush back into the building and up the stairs to Stewart’s aid. Each time they were met by a hail of gunfire and grenades that forced them to fall back. Marines to Arellano’s north were shooting down from their rooftop positions. Arellano, heart pounding, shouted at the top of his lungs, “Where are they at, Clairday?” Clairday pointed downward and continued to fire onto the rooftop and into the alley below.
When the shooting started, Corporal Daniel Williamson moved to the rooftop of the building in the Janabi complex south of the fighting and began firing at the insurgents hidden in their fortified positions. An enemy sniper quickly returned the fire and hit Williamson in the hand. Corporal John Wilson helped Williamson into the rooftop stairwell, but just as he headed through the door he was shot by the same sniper. Corporal Jerome Hutcheson helped both wounded men down the stairs to the street. Two more Kilo Company Marines had been taken out of the fight.
Arellano’s team leaders had also moved into a building south of the 915 block. Lance Corporals Jacob Fernandez and William Lenard positioned the squad in overwatch. Once they knew that their Marines were in a secure position, they went looking for their squad leader.
Still not knowing Corporal Stewart’s fate, Corporal David Cisneros and Lance Corporal Phillip Miska repeatedly tried to re-enter the building where Stewart was trapped. They kept the enemy pinned for fifteen minutes, preventing them from fleeing or attacking other Marines downstairs. On Cisneros’ third attempt, he too was wounded, peppered with shrapnel from one of a dozen enemy grenades.
The enemy fought ferociously, firing automatic weapons and lobbing grenades down the stairs. “Grenade!” yelled Corporal David Hawley, as another hand grenade rained down on the Marines. Hawley turned and pushed two Marines down the stairs. BOOM! The explosion hurled a golf ball-sized chunk of metal into his thigh, knocking him down the stairs. Hawley continued to fire his M16 until his friends dragged him out of the house.
Then Miska noticed an RPG pointed over the half-wall at the top of the stairs. He repeatedly fired at the metal projectile, hoping to detonate the grenade. His volley forced the grenadier to fire without aiming. The grenade missed the Marines in the stairwell, but the explosion knocked them back down the stairs. Undaunted, Miska and the other Marines regrouped and tried once again to fight their way up the stairs.
Private First Class Renaldo Leal repeatedly rushed back into the fight, pulling three wounded Marines to safety. The casualties were mounting; several Marines were now huddled at a casualty collection point, waiting for medical evacuation.
Frustrated by his inability to get to Stewart, Pioske moved to a second-floor patio in the next building, and from his new position obtained a clear shot. He exchanged protracted fire with the enemy, eventually killing five insurgents. All the while Kilo Company Marines were swarming into all of the adjacent buildings, sealing the enemy’s fate.
The Kilo Marines continued to attack. Arellano ran out of one courtyard into the street. He quickly moved along the wall in search of the next gate and approached a narrow alley. He saw a Marine lying on the ground, and wondered why there was no corpsman helping him. Then he realized that another hero had fallen: Sergeant Kirk was dead. Arellano would remember this sight for the rest of his life, but there was no time to mourn now; he had to keep his head clear, he had to stay in the fight, he had to keep his other Marines from the same fate, he had to get to the trapped Marine. Arellano jumped over Kirk’s body and continued his search for the next gate.
Two doors down to the east, Staff Sergeant Melvin Blazer, Jr., a seasoned, seventeen-year veteran of the Corps, had moved into the next house with a group of Marines; they were trying to find a way across the roof to get to Stewart’s house. Blazer headed up the stairs for the roof. When he reached the landing, three insurgents cut him down in a hail of gunfire. Corporal Mason Fischer rushed to the top of the stairwell, protecting Blazer’s body, while Lance Corporal William Vorheis ran to Stewart’s house for reinforcements.
“Staff Sergeant Blazer’s been hit and is trapped on the second deck!” he announced between breaths.
First Sergeant Steve Knox, Leal, and the other Marines rushed to Blazer’s aid in the building where Corporal Fisher was holding the enemy at bay. Without pause, Leal charged up the stairs, jumped into the enemy line of fire, and emptied an entire drum of 5.56 from his SAW. Fisher reached underneath the torrent of outgoing lead to drag Blazer’s lifeless body out of the line of fire and down the stairs. Leal followed Blazer and Fisher, both of whom somehow emerged unscathed.
By now Captain McNulty, Lieutenant Moulder, and the Kilo Company command group had moved to the second-floor balcony of the house between the houses where Stewart and Blazer had been shot. The enemy insurgents were barricaded on either side of them.15 Arellano moved to the patio to link up with his platoon commander. Moulder ordered him into the house next door to where Blazer had just been killed. Arellano’s mind was racing. He scanned the scene, looking for men from his squad.
Moulder pointed and repeated, “Get into that house!”
Not seeing any of his own squad, Arellano turned and pointed at Marines near him. “You, you, you, and you, come with me,” he ordered.16
Lieutenant Moulder ordered Sergeant Coduto to clear the building below and to find a way into Stewart’s building. Corporal Herren was ordered to return to Stewart’s building and secure the ground floor.
While Coduto’s squad secured the center building, Sergeant Arellano and his shanghaied squad hurried down the stairs to assault the neighboring house. One of Kilo Company’s gun trucks was parked in the street. Arellano checked to make sure that no Marines were inside the house, then ordered the truck gunner to open on the house with 40mm grenades with his MK-19 automatic grenade launcher. Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk…the grenades slammed into the building and exploded in rapid succession—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Two simultaneous assaults were now underway: Arellano and his Marines followed the grenades into the courtyard, and Corporal Clairday and his squad moved roof-to-roof, north-to-south to Stewart’s house. One after the other, Clairday, Yeager, and Lance Corporals Travis Icard and Hilario Lopez jumped the four-foot gap between the buildings. Once on the roof, Clairday moved to the front of the stack. Simultaneously, Arellano and his newly-formed squad prepared to enter Blazer’s house. Arellano charged in and lobbed grenades into the interior rooms. When Clairday, Arellano’s close friend, moved to enter the second-floor room, an AK-47 rattled, hitting him in the arms and legs. Lance Corporal Yeager laid down a spray of bullets while Clairday crawled out of the line of fire. He refused medical treatment and returned to the front of the stack. Arellano and another Marine headed toward the bottom of the stairs.
The Marines could now see Corporal Stewart’s boots just inside and to the right of the patio door. Yeager tossed two grenades into the house. Clairday and Lopez charged in and moved left while Gonzalez and Icard charged right.17 Sergeant Gonzalez sprayed the wall lockers with bullets as another Marine retrieved Stewart’s body. One of the bullet-riddled cupboard doors swung open and out stumbled an insurgent; Gonzalez instantly cut him down.
On the other side of the house, Clairday led more Marines into the last room. As Clairday, Yeager, and Lopez were assaulting the enemy, Miska and his squad leader charged the stairway one last time. Gunfire rang out and Clairday fell, this time mortally wounded. Lopez jumped into the doorway and began firing while Yeager pulled Clairday’s body from harm’s way. The enemy opened fire on Lopez at point-blank range, killing him, too.
Once Yeager had retrieved Clairday he and Icard returned to the fight, attacking the enemy’s last stronghold. Yeager killed another Muj, but more remained. When Icard and Yeager fired into the door jamb, the insurgents responded by lobbing a grenade onto the landing. Yeager and Icard tried to melt into the walls, hoping to protect themselves from the impending blast, but the grenade failed to explode. Yeager, Miska and Icard resumed their attack and didn’t let up until the final two insurgents were dead.
Meanwhile, two houses down, Arellano moved toward the stairwell on which Melvin Blazer, husband and father of two, had just been mortally wounded. With his M16 pointed upward, Arellano began climbing the first flight of stairs backwards, keeping his weapon trained on the second floor. Another Marine followed and threw a grenade upstairs. As soon as it went off, Arellano and the trailing Marine charged up the remaining steps. They quickly moved past the room into which Leal had emptied his SAW and headed straight toward the adjacent bedroom.
Smoke from the previous grenades filled the house. Enemy rounds were chipping at the walls all around them. Like Gonzalez, Arellano shot at areas where the insurgents could be hiding as he charged into the bedroom. His bullets ripped into each corner, through a bed, and splintered a row of standup wooden dressers.
“Clear left! Clear right! Room clear! Nada!” Arellano shouted.
He returned to the bedroom door and grabbed a grenade to throw into the room the two men had just run past. A group of Marines was stacked on the stairs waiting to charge onto the second floor, so he shouted to them that he was about to frag the room. But they had their own plan, and one of the Marines broke from the stack on the stairs and ran toward Arellano. Grenade in hand, pin pulled, Arellano made way for the Marine charging toward his room.
The Marine who rushed past threw his grenade into the uncleared room. “Frag out!” he yelled.
There stood Arellano, holding a live grenade. He wasn’t about to try to put the pin back in, so he tossed his grenade into the room, too.
Arellano shouted, “Frag out!” only seconds after the first exclamation.
Because the first grenade had not yet exploded, Arellano feared that the Marines below would not realize that two grenades were cooking off. His mind raced as he scrambled for cover. Marines were trained to rush a room the instant their grenade detonated in order to take advantage of the stun effect of the explosion. Would the Marines charge up the stairs as soon as the first grenade blew? Arellano had to take action, and he would only have a split second after the first explosion to do so.
BOOM!
As soon as the first grenade went off, the Marines below did exactly as they were trained to do, and precisely what Arellano feared: they started up the stairs. The sergeant ran to the doorway to stop them. Glancing over, he spotted his own grenade in the room.
How could this be? he thought. Did the insurgents toss my grenade back toward the door? Did it bounce off something in the room, or did the first explosion blow my grenade into the open?
Arellano yelled, “Get back! There’s another grena…”
BOOM!
Arellano’s senses turned to slow motion. He saw everything clearly: the curtains rose in the room; smoke came through each crevice in the bricks, joined by sparks from the flesh-eating fragmentation pouring through the mud-brick wall. The force of the explosion spun Arellano onto his hands and knees. The loud boom echoed in his ears; he was certain he was deaf.
His world collapsed into a narrow unsteady focus, his mind racing: had he saved his Marines? Had he kept them from the door? And then another thought filled his consciousness. “I’m hit, I’m hit!”
A distant voice tried to encourage Arellano. “You’re okay.”
Arellano tried to move around, but his palms slipped in a pool of his own blood. Dazed, breathing hard, and feeling weak, he asked the Marine, “What do you mean I’m good?! Can’t you see I’m bleeding to death?”
Arellano felt blood streaming from his neck, which had been shredded by shrapnel, and more metal fragments had ripped into his leg only millimeters from his femoral artery. When others rushed to try to help him to his feet, he crumpled like a rag doll. It felt as though he were being electrocuted, and the pain was excruciating. Still, he tried to remain as calm as possible and helped as best he could while Marines removed his flak jacket.
Kilo Company Marines quickly cleared the house and hoisted their wounded sergeant to carry him to safety. He was dead weight; Arellano couldn’t do much to help as he was dragged down the stairs, head bouncing on each riser. Moaning in pain, he watched the wall, then the ceiling, then more Marines rushing into the house, and finally the dingy grey sky outside. He could still hear gunfire, but was now lying in the street with the mounting numbers of other wounded while a corpsman cut away his uniform. It was beautiful to be outside.
Lance Corporal Lenard had finally found his friend and squad leader. He rushed to Arellano’s side and reached down to grab his hand. Arellano squeezed Lenard’s hand as the corpsmen worked to stop the bleeding.
“They are going to have to put a tourniquet on your neck,” Lenard joked.
“They better make it tight.” Arellano replied. He pointed to his crotch. “How am I down there?”
Smiling, “It’s gone, bro’!” Lenard quipped.
As he was rushed to the waiting AMTRAC, a cold chill engulfed Arellano’s body. Marines placed him on the center bench, the back ramp was raised, and the vehicle lurched forward, racing to get Arellano to Bravo Surgical in Camp Fallujah before he really did bleed to death.
“Stop giving me morphine,” he told First Sergeant Knox. “I want to feel the pain so I don’t slip away.”
Arellano reached to his chest and grabbed the cross dangling from his dog tag chain. He wondered if he would die, and tried to picture his family and Lindsey’s beautiful face. Would he ever see her again? Arellano would fight for his life; he couldn’t leave Lindsey behind.
The other wounded Marines moaned and groaned with every bump in the road on a journey that seemed to take forever. When the casevac finally ground to a stop and the ramp dropped, Arellano was whisked into the trauma unit.
Once all the casualties had been evacuated and the fallen Marines’ bodies retrieved, Captain McNulty surrounded 915 Block with gun trucks, tracks, and tanks. He pulled his infantry back and proceeded to level the block, using precision 500-pound bombs to do so. The bombing continued until well after sunset, and 915 Block remained cordoned all night.
That night, Lieutenant Colonel Malay visited the mortuary unit to say his personal farewells to Blazer, Clairday, Kirk, Lopez, and Stewart. He also went to Bravo Surgical again. Of the twenty-five Marines who had been wounded that day, some remained in the fight, but many were still at the surgical unit. Arellano, groggy from the first of many surgeries, looked up and saw Lieutenant Colonel Malay and Sergeant Major Resto stopping at every bed. When they reached his, they told him that he had fought a good fight. Malay and Resto told the wounded about the day’s events, and announced that not everyone who had been hit had survived. Sergeant Major Resto finished by reading the names of those who had fallen. Arellano closed his eyes and wept.
The next morning McNulty hit 915 Block again with tank main gun rounds and bombs. It took nine 500-pound bombs to complete the destruction. Despite the focused and overwhelming firepower, when Third Platoon moved in to clear the rubble it found four insurgents inside the first house. When they opened fire on the Marines, Yeager jumped into the fight and killed each in turn. By the time the fight was finally over, the Darkhorse Marines had lost five of their comrades in 915 Block, and fourteen more were seriously wounded.
It was not until December 13 that the block was free of enemy fighters. The Marines had killed thirty insurgents who were wearing green uniforms, assault vests, and pistol belts, had clean weapons, and were eating from food stores. These were seasoned soldiers, not ragtag thugs. It had been Darkhorse’s most difficult fight yet, and the costliest single engagement since the VBIED attack on Ramos’ Marines in the Zaidon.
And still more jihadists were waiting for their chance to kill Americans.
Cornered Jackals
On the morning of the December 14, the Darkhorse Marines moved to sweep the far eastern edge of the Askari District from MICHIGAN north. Kilo Company was several blocks inside the city on the battalion’s left. With tanks, AAVs, machine gun teams, and snipers in overwatch, the Marines moved house-to-house, clearing in their now-familiar squeegee fashion. Although the tactics were familiar, after their last few encounters Malay’s Marines went back to clearing with a renewed vigilance.
Sergeant Eric Copsetta had refused to leave the 915 Block fight despite taking a chunk of shrapnel in his jaw. Instead, he insisted on returning to his Marines after his injury was treated. When he returned with his face bandaged, his platoon commander asked, “Have they given you any meds?”18
“Yes, sir, they gave me these Vicodin,” confirmed Copsetta. “But I can still shoot straight.”
“OK, Sergeant, just don’t shoot me.”
Cragholm needed Copsetta. The fighting had reduced Third Platoon to two understrength squads. Copsetta, along with Corporal Michael Anderson, Jr., moved his squad across the rooftops, clearing buildings from the top down. They wanted to flush any enemy fighters into the streets instead of trapping them on top of barricaded buildings. At a one-story house, before moving from the roof to the ground floor, Corporal Anderson tossed a stun grenade down the stairwell. Lance Corporal Adam Rouse and an Iraqi Intervention Force soldier followed the grenade down the stairs and turned left into a large kitchen. Anderson, with a green Iraqi soldier in tow, raced down the stairs and moved to the first door on his right. The door was closed, so Anderson kicked it in. Unbeknownst to Anderson, eight insurgents had barricaded themselves in the room.
Shots rang out. One of the rounds narrowly missed Anderson’s body armor and tore into his side under his arm, mortally wounding him. The Iraqi soldier turned and ran from the house.
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Nicholas Cook and Lance Corporal Bradley Balak were the next down the stairs. As soon as Anderson fell, Cook and Balak opened fire, shooting into the open doorway. The enemy’s focus immediately turned to them, and bullets whizzed toward the stairway. Cook heard a snap and felt a slash across his lip. The round didn’t break the skin, but had passed so close that it burned his lip. Another bullet ricocheted, hurling a small chunk of shrapnel into Balak’s nose. Shocked more than injured, Balak and Cook retreated back up the stairs.
Corporal van Doorn and Lieutenant Cragholm were two houses down when the shooting broke out. Instead of racing to the fight, they methodically cleared both of the intervening houses so as to be in position to isolate the target house from the north and east, while Sergeant Copsetta moved his Marines into positions to isolate the building from the south and west. A machine gun team moved to a southern rooftop to cover the alleyways behind the house.
The enemy fighters were now surrounded, but Anderson was lying in the doorway. Sergeant Elber Navarro, Arellano’s mentor and friend, moved his squad to the front side of the house, rammed the front gate with a 20-ton AAV, and pushed it into the courtyard. Navarro’s Marines charged through the yard and into the house. All of the rooms were clear except for the one with Anderson’s body in the doorway. Captain McNulty and Gunny Brockmann pulled up outside the house in their HMMWV. McNulty got a quick update from Cragholm and headed into the house.19
Navarro and McNulty rechecked the first room on their left, then Navarro moved to the bunkered room and fired through the doorway. He tossed grenade after grenade into the room—fragmentation, smoke, and incendiary, the latter triggering a fire. Navarro waited for several pounding heartbeats and then, weapon at the ready, stepped into the doorway to ensure he had killed the insurgents. To his surprise, three Muj were on their feet and heading for the door—fleeing the growing conflagration. Navarro squeezed his trigger, dropping all three enemy fighters before they could raise their weapons.
While Navarro was cleaning the room, McNulty moved past the open door and dragged Anderson’s body out of the line of fire and into a small bathroom at the foot of the stairs. McNulty would have to cross the line of fire once more to get outside.
Navarro retreated back into the hallway toward McNulty just as RPK machine gun rounds splintered the bedroom door. Another insurgent charged the door and Navarro cut him down as well. The enemy fighters tossed their own grenades toward the hallway and into the kitchen, wounding Rouse. Navarro, McNulty, and the other Marines in the house could do little more than hunker down through the enemy’s grenade barrage. Once in the bathroom McNulty couldn’t hear a thing; the repeated explosions and gunfire had temporarily taken out his hearing.
Lieutenant Colonel Malay moved to the sound of the guns. He was always in the city, and shifted to wherever his Marines were in contact with enemy fighters. Often he was just another Marine in the fight. Malay carried an M16, but no radio, choosing instead to monitor events from the radios hanging in his HMMWV. He didn’t like to carry one himself because he knew he would have a tendency to get on and shoot off his mouth. Malay had confidence in his men and tried to let them do their jobs without his constant intervention, but he always moved to the point of action.
When Malay pulled up outside the house, he tried to get McNulty on the radio without success.20 Concerned that he had lost one of his company commanders, Malay charged into the house just as another insurgent tried to flee the room. McNulty and Navarro cut him down, too.
Smoke from the fire was billowing into the hallway and Navarro was having trouble breathing. The situation was already bad enough when another enemy grenade flew out of the room toward McNulty and Navarro, bounced off the wall, and landed on one of the dead insurgents. Navarro scrambled backward toward the bathroom, landing on Corporal Anderson’s legs. The three Marines were in a heap on the bathroom floor when the grenade exploded—BOOM!—and out ran a flaming Muj, AK in hand. The man tried to flee up the stairs to avoid Navarro’s shots, but a Marine at the top of the stairs ended the enemy fighter’s flight with a burst from his SAW.
Navarro decided to throw one last grenade into the room to buy time to drag Anderson’s body past the open doorway and out of the house. When he reached down for it, however, he discovered he did not have any left.
“Someone give me a grenade!” he yelled.
“I got it,” replied a Marine in the house. “Just get out of here.”
Navarro turned toward the voice only to discover it belonged to Lieutenant Colonel Malay. Navarro’s battalion commander pulled the pin and pitched a final grenade into the room.
BOOM!
Navarro and McNulty crossed the line of fire and ran out of the house while Martinez and van Doorn rushed to pull Anderson’s body into the street. With the house clear, the Marines circled the building and watched it burn to the ground.
Darkhorse Marines had encountered heavily armed, fanatic enemy fighters nearly every day since their arrival in the Askari District. They were supposed to be clearing caches and preparing to reopen the city to civilians. Instead, they were engaging in mortal combat with the hardest of the hardcore. And there were still the last few northeastern blocks to clear. Diehard jihadists were trapped there—and there is nothing more dangerous than cornered jackals.