Chapter 8

The First Day in the City

“I love tanks.”

– Colonel Pat Malay, USMC, October 5, 2007

Fighting in the Askari District

Task Force 2–2 advanced one-half mile into the Askari District with tanks, Bradleys, and infantry squads bounding through the enemy positions like boats through water. The smarter insurgents let the armored vehicles and infantry flow right past them by simply moving aside or hiding until the juggernaut was well behind them.

Alpha Company, 2–2 reached the Imam al Shafi Mosque before the sun came up. The mosque, only 500 meters from MICHIGAN, was a major command-and-control center, aid station, and weapons cache for the Askari District. With 1/3’s Marines slowed by their problems at the breach and 2–2 pushing forward, a large gap developed along the boundary between RCT–7’s Marines and Newell’s soldiers. As a result, A/2–2’s infantrymen moved back north to set into defensive positions across the street from the mosque. From Lieutenant Joaquin Meno’s Third Platoon, Staff Sergeant Colin Fitts moved his squad into a house due north of the mosque, while Sergeant Bellavia’s 2nd Squad moved to the end of the block to occupy the corner house. While Fitts kept his squad hidden inside their house, Bellavia moved his men to the roof.

They were in position for only a short time when one of Bellavia’s squad members noticed movement in a window in the house next door. Bellavia radioed Fitts to make sure that it wasn’t one of his men. It wasn’t. When the shadow appeared again in the window, Bellavia’s soldiers opened fire, wounding the insurgent.

The injured enemy lookout stumbled down the stairs and out of the house next door as Bellavia’s men lobbed grenades into the courtyard. Trapped, the now-dying insurgent called out for his friends. Voices in the dark answered their wounded comrade, first from the east, then the west, and even the north. The enemy was all around Bellavia’s squad on its rooftop fortress, and his Bradleys were a block away: the squad was surrounded and isolated from their armored vehicles. The sun was just starting to glow in the early morning sky when a whistle blew, followed by another and then another.

“These fucking dudes are about to charge us,” Bellavia told his squad. “Okay, get your ammo out, SAW ammo at your knees. Line your mags up where you can get to ‘em quick. We’re not leaving this roof. We’re not moving. We’ll stand and fight right the fuck here.”¹

The first attack came from the northwest as the sun rose. A half-dozen insurgents charged across the street right in front of Fitts’ hidden squad. First Squad mowed them down before they knew what hit them. Now that his position was compromised, Fitts decided to pull his squad back and consolidate with Bellavia on the rooftop stronghold. “I’m coming to you,” Fitts radioed to Bellavia. Moments later Fitts’ First Squad streamed onto Bellavia’s roof, reuniting Lieutenant Joaquin Meno’s Third Platoon. Fitts and Bellavia set their fields of fire and prepared for the next assault.

The second attack came from the windows, rooftops, and alleyways all around Third Platoon’s position. The insurgents attacked with everything they had: AKs, machine guns, and RPGs. Bullets chipped away at the walls and rockets whizzed overhead. The soldiers returned fire with their 240 machine guns, SAWs, and M4s.

Although they were outnumbered, for now Meno’s men were holding their own in this hellish gunfight. Meno called for his Bradleys to bring in more firepower. Sergeant Chad Ellis was parked in Meno’s track at an intersection southeast of the fight, but his Bushmaster and 240 were both down and he was just trying to stay out of the way. It was Staff Sergeant Cory Brown’s Bradley that answered the call for help. Brown’s track rumbled up the street, firing at anything that moved. When the insurgents sensed that Ellis’ track was compromised, they attacked. Ellis fought back by picking off charging insurgents with his only working weapon—his M16.

Brown continued to rake the street below, blasting windows with his Bushmaster cannon as more machine gun fire peppered the wall atop Bellavia’s fortress. Bellavia’s men took the enemy machine gun out with two AT4² rockets. By this time Bellavia’s men were running low on ammunition, but they continued to drop insurgents in the streets. When a group of enemy fighters moved to engulf Brown’s Bradley, he fired a TOW missile into them, killing most of the group and dispersing the rest.

The determined enemy refused to give up the attack. Reinforcements crossed MICHIGAN and charged north out of the industrial district. First they crouched behind a concrete barrier and started lobbing RPGs at Ellis. Sergeant First Class James W. “JW” Cantrell pulled up in his Bradley to protect Ellis. As soon as he rounded the corner, he let loose another TOW missile that whooshed down the road toward Ellis’ attackers, blowing the corner off a building.

One of the company’s M1 tanks clanked in behind Cantrell. The M1 gunner blew the enemy’s Texas barrier at MICHIGAN apart with main gun rounds, and Cantrell’s gunner blasted the dozen insurgents as they scattered. Cantrell and the Abrams tank finally broke the enemy’s attack. Three and one-half hours had passed since Bellavia shot the insurgent in the window.

While Bellavia’s soldiers were fighting for their lives, Captain Tennant’s Charlie Company, 1/3, was preparing to push south from the al Tafiq Mosque. Before the Hawaii Marines moved out, the attached Army psyops detachment started broadcasting surrender pleas from the mosque’s loudspeakers. As soon as they started, the entire block south of the mosque erupted in gunfire: RPGs and mortar rounds harmlessly rained down on the Marines waiting in the mosque courtyard.

Tennant moved his machine gunners and rocket teams to the roof of the mosque, and then dispatched his Third Platoon into the gauntlet. The Marines moved south, engaging in a house-by-house street battle with the insurgents. Corporal David Willis could see a gun barrel or muzzle flash in every window. One by one the Marines fired at each, either killing or scaring away its occupant; building by building, the infantry pushed past each house. They didn’t take the time to fully clear the buildings. Their mission was to get to MICHIGAN as fast as they could. They fought their way deeper and deeper into the city, leaving scores of enemy fighters in the buildings behind them.

Lee’s tanks and Tennant’s Marines pushed south toward the next objective, the Mujareen Mosque located a block north of “Dave’s Field.” Dave’s Field covered an entire city block, 400 x 200 meters along MSR MICHIGAN. It had once been the site of a large soccer facility that boasted at least three fields. In recent months the insurgents had used it as a makeshift graveyard.³

Fighting in the Jolan District

As the sun rose in the morning sky, the city’s dingy-gray buildings slowly turned to the color of sand. Despite the spreading light, the morning was cold and wet, a low-lying fog on the city streets. With nearly all of the city’s civilians having fled, only enemy combatants were left in a what was now a giant ghost town. Goats, chickens, and dogs roamed the rubble-strewn streets.

The Darkhorse Marines moved on line facing south and prepared to move into the Jolan District. Captain Brian Chontosh’s India Company remained on the battalion’s eastern boundary. Andrew McNulty’s Kilo Company prepared to move into the city to fill in between Chontosh and Edward Bitanga’s Lima Company, which held the western flank up against the Euphrates River.

Bitanga’s Marines were still taking fire from the first block of buildings by the Palm Grove; so while they waited for McNulty’s Kilo Company Marines to fill in on their left, Bitanga brought up his section of tanks and started wearing out the first row of houses with main gun rounds, TOW missiles, and Cobra gun runs.⁴

Once the men of Kilo got into the city, both India and Kilo companies advanced side by side, moving in unison like a giant squeegee. Initially there was little contact, for the enemy had fallen back to positions deep within Fallujah. As a result, the morning’s advance was largely uneventful. Lima Company held north of the Palm Grove, waiting for McNulty and Chontosh to catch up.

Led by Bodisch’s fourteen Comanche tanks, Colonel Shupp’s entire regiment advanced six infantry companies abreast. Chris Brooke’s ten Bradleys guarded the left flank along HENRY, and Wittnam, Parrello, Rubio, and the Small Craft Company guarded the river on the right. The tank-infantry teams went to work, grinding forward and defeating every enemy attempt to stand and fight. It was the Marine Air Ground Task Force at its best. “If you get Marine Corps firepower pointed in the right direction,” observed Colonel Malay, “whoever is on the other end is in big, big trouble.”⁵

Sergeant Jason Arellano and his squad were right in the center of Malay’s squeegee. Arellano knew that Marines would die in the coming days, but he hoped that he could bring all of his Marines safely through the coming fight. His worst fear was that someone in his squad would fall due to some mistake on his part. He vowed to focus on each engagement and take one day at a time. He couldn’t let his men down. He knew that if something happened to him, his guys would be ready to step up and take his position. They were ready; but was he?⁶

Early that morning, Colonel Shupp met with the troops of the Iraqi 1st Battalion as they were preparing to enter the city. He could tell they were scared, so he took his personal security detachment and went to the head of the formation to greet the Iraqi brigade commander. He then proceeded to march the infantry into the city. Shupp wanted the Iraqis to see they were all in the fight together. He walked them into position alongside Captain Brooke’s Bradleys that were lining HENRY, guarding the road with their 25mm Bushmaster cannons. Shupp’s leadership and the armored vehicles gave the Iraqi soldiers the confidence they needed. They immediately started erecting barricades and concertina. It was the perfect mission for them. They put up tetrahedrons and they blocked HENRY across the whole eastern side of the city. Nothing could get through.

There comes a point in time when the well-planned operation gives way to actual combat, and for many soldiers and Marines that experience took place on November 9. For some, it would take a series of events—seeing a dead body, a severed foot, or a blood-stained room. For others, it was a single traumatic event, like the realization that the enemy was shooting at them. For Captain Rob Bodisch, that moment came around 0830 when a guy in a “man-dress” popped out into the street in front of his M1 tank and launched an RPG at nearly point-blank range.

Bodisch, who had been leading Captain Jent’s Kilo Company down the claustrophobic streets of the Jolan District, returned fire with his main gun. The tank rocked and was immediately enveloped in a cloud of dust and debris. His main gun round and the enemy RPG whizzed past each other in flight, each heading for its target. Bodisch had no clue where his MPAT⁷ round impacted, but the RPG hit his tank with a loud boom. As soon as the dust settled, Bodisch fired again—and watched in amazement as his second round clanged out of the muzzle and fell to the ground in front of the tank. The RPG detonation had damaged the main gun, taking it out of action.

Captain Chris Brooke was tasked with protecting route HENRY down to CATHY during the first day of fighting. As the commander of Rainey’s trailing company, he also had to be prepared to respond as the battalion reserve. Brooke devised a strategy that would conserve his ammunition and enable him to complete his mission.