The Cavalry Rides In - (Stupendous narrative by a Lt. in 7th Cav. Fallujah,Najaf,Iraq)

Following are extracts from a letter to TAE's editor from a young West Point-educated Army officer who has been at the center of intelligence operations connected to two of the trickiest and most successful combat actions carried out by the U.S. military in the last half century--August 2004's Battle of Najaf and November's Battle of Fallujah. He provides details on the Fallujah fight, including the previously unreported revelation that Muslim holy warriors traffic in illicit drugs.

On November 7, Prime Minister Allawi gave the green light to the American and Iraqi military. All day long, Air Force and Marine Corps aviators shaped the battlefield with laser-guided bombs and hellfire missiles. We had been collecting information for months through unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), human intelligence, and Special Forces probes. We knew exactly where the insurgents stored their weapons, where they held meetings. So the attacks from the air were precise, and very effective in reducing the enemy's ability to fight before a single U.S. soldier entered the city.

We threw our opponents a curveball by destroying any vehicle that had been parked in the same location for more than three days. We guessed they might be car bombs, and most were. Almost every vehicle we attacked produced a huge secondary fireball as the explosives packed within went up, so a major aspect of the enemy's defensive plan was literally shot to hell.

After 12 hours of air strikes, our U.S. Army cavalry task force was the first unit to enter the city. Our M1 tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles engaged every enemy strong point we came across. Moving deliberately and violently, it took until 10 a.m. the next day to get two miles into the city. Our three companies of armor killed many insurgents that first day, and weakened numerous defensive points in preparation for the Marines' attack.

Our intelligence shop was flying a UAV to determine where the enemy was. Our Raven is a very small plane with cameras, launched by being thrown into the air, then controlled remotely. We flew it for several hours and reported locations of insurgents on roofs and in the streets.

The Marines' mission was to follow the tanks and fight the mujahideen building to building. In the first day of fighting, the Marines took tough casualties, sometimes battling the enemy hand to hand. Along the way, they found huge caches of weapons, suicide vests, bomb-making factories, torture chambers and slaughterhouses, evidence of the presence of foreign fighters, and more than 650 roadside bombs.

They also found large amounts of drugs--mostly speed and cocaine. Many of these jihad purists apparently drug themselves up for pleasure and to give themselves the boldness and stupidity to fight. Insurgents in "the city of mosques" also used 60 of their 100 houses of worship as firing positions, weapons storage points, and bomb-making locations. They placed snipers, mortar observers, and men armed with RPGs in the minarets of their mosques. They faked being hurt and then threw grenades at Marines who approached to provide medical treatment. They waved white surrender flags only to shoot at our forces who approached to accept the surrender.

We fought around the clock and continued to support the Marines as they cleared houses. Whenever the Marines took heavy fire or RPGs from a building, our tanks and Bradleys responded with overwhelming firepower. After a few minutes of suppressive fire, the Marines would go in the door. There was rarely anyone left alive at that point.

There were too many buildings, though, and we couldn't provide suppressive fire on every one. When the Marines had to clear a structure without armored fire on the building first, they took heavy casualties, because the insurgents didn't stop shooting until the Marines got inside and killed them.

Iraqi Forces followed the Marines, to re-clear the buildings and clean up the enormous weapons caches. Sometimes insurgents who had managed to hide from the Marines would come out to fight the Iraqis, so they took some casualties as well. But they did a good job of securing the area and collecting thousands of AK-47's, RPGs, mortars, and IEDs that were stockpiled in these houses.

The Marines found that one out of every four city blocks contained a major weapons storage area. That shows how important Fallujah was to the insurgents. This city was the center of the resistance against the new Iraqi government. The insurgents wanted to keep their safe haven where they were able to train with weapons and explosives, meet openly and plan attacks, torture and behead Iraqis and Westerners working to make Iraq a better place, and assemble car and roadside bombs in assembly-line fashion (we found 26 bomb factories, which shipped their devices to cities across Iraq). Between April and October, when no coalition forces operated in Fallujah, they were able to get away with these atrocious acts without any interference. No more.

When the insurgents saw the size of our invasion from the north, many fled to the southern part of the city. So a little before midnight we led a second push through the rest of the city. Same mission, same purpose: To weaken enemy strong points and kill as many insurgents as possible to enable the Marines to follow us when the sun rose. The house to house fighting uncovered more weapons, more torture chambers, more ammunition, and more insurgents ready to fight to the death. Over several days, American forces killed 1,200-1,600 insurgents, according to Marine estimates. About another thousand fighters made the decision to spend 30 years in prison rather than end their lives in Fallujah.

Marines came across several houses rigged to explode. "Refrigerator bombs" were used as a last ditch effort against our units after they forced their way into houses. We were very disturbed to find one house with five foreigners with bullets in their head, killed execution style. Marines also came upon a house where a soldier in the Iraqi National Guard had been shackled to the wall for 11 days and left to die. Some of the torture chambers were extremely gruesome. These insurgents are sick people.

Several houses contained high-tech equipment where the enemy conducted meetings. In Fallujah, they had a military-type planning system. Some of the fighters were wearing body armor and helmets just like ours, and were armed with ex-pensive and hard-to-find armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and RPGs. Soldiers came across bodies of fighters from Chechnya, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Afghanistan. This was a city full of trained fighters from all over the Middle East whose mission in life was to kill Americans. It was the wrong city for them in November 2004.

The intelligence value of the 900 detainees is huge. We are getting a lot of information about other insurgents, their plans, and networks. The enemy never expected such a large or powerful attack, and were so overwhelmed they left behind all kinds of things: books with names of other fighters, records of where their money and weapons come from, etc.

The insurgents forced us to smash the city to win this fight. People back home should know that every responsible citizen of Fallujah is getting U.S. $2,500 (that's a lot over here) to fix up his house. I can assure you the money spent to rebuild the city is a small price to pay for the number of despicable men no longer alive.

It blew my mind to see how much might and capability our country has if evildoers force us to use it. Having been a part of the operations in Najaf and now Fallujah, I have a whole new appreciation for what our military can achieve.

We lost over 50 soldiers and Marines in the fight for Fallujah, including a sergeant major, company commander, eight platoon leaders, and dozens of good kids between the ages of 18 and 25. I can't tell you how proud I was to be part of this fight, and to know these soldiers who fearlessly and relentlessly went from building to building to take the battle to the enemy.

The losses were hard on our units. But anyone back home who thinks the world is a safe place needs to come here for a day and learn real fast that there are people out there who hate Americans enough to risk their lives to kill us. I see firsthand in Iraq that we cannot live peacefully back home right now unless we stay on the offensive against our enemies in their own backyards. The day we signed up, all of us soldiers accepted the risk of death as the price of defeating evil. There are some things worth fighting and dying for, and making America safer is one of them.

We have an officers vs. enlisted football game tomorrow where I am the quarterback, so I am excited to get the competitive juices flowing again. We also have a Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. The American government is doing a lot to take care of soldiers over here; quality of life improves every day. Despite the fact we have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's away from family, friends, and fun, we are grateful to have gotten through this big fight, and to have played such an important role in the successful mission.

Michael Erwin is a lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in Iraq.

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 there 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 site.

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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