Dick Camp - Operation Phantom Fury: The Assault and Capture of Fallujah, Iraq

THE ASSAULT AND CAPTURE
OF FALLUJAH, IRAQ

Dick Camp

First published in 2009 by Zenith Press, an imprint of MBI Publishing Company, 400 First Avenue North, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA

Copyright 2009, 2010 by Dick Camp

Hardcover edition published in 2009. Digital edition 2010.

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Digital edition: 978-1-61673-253-0

Hardcover edition: 978-0-7603-3698-4

Printed in China

L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING-IN -P UBLICATION D ATA

Camp, Richard D.

Operation Phantom Fury : the assault and capture of
Fallujah, Iraq /Dick Camp. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7603-3698-4 (hb w/ jkt)

1. Fallujah, Battle of, Fallujah, Iraq, 2004.

2. United States. Marine CorpsHistoryIraq War, 2003 I. Title.

DS79.766.F3C366 2009

956.7044342dc22

2009020013

Maps by: Lt. Col. R.L. Bill Cody, USMC (Ret.), and Patti Isaacs

Designer: Diana Boger

Cover Design: Brenda C. Canales

On the front cover:
Top: Marines of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) company as part of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marinesuse explosives to open a metal gate to a house as they search houses for insurgents on November 22, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq. Scott Peterson/Getty Images
Bottom: Defenseimagery.mil 041110-M-2789C-011

On the frontispiece: Defenseimagery.mil 040605-M-4419R-073
On the back cover: Defenseimagery.mil 041110-M-5191K-093

For generations of Marines, when the battle honors
of the Corps are citedBelleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima,
Chosin Reservoir, Hue City, Khe Sanha new accolade
will be added: F ALLUJAH .

To the warriorsMarines, soldiers, sailorswho upheld the
highest traditions, and to Lt. Col. Joe Cody USMC (Ret), a Marine
for thirty years, 19471977. A mustang who went to sea in
USS Boxer, USS Mt. McKinley, and USS Intrepid. A grunt who fought with the
1st Marine Division in Korea and Vietnam and is now
guarding heavens streets. Semper Fidelis.

Till the last landings made

And we stand unafraid

On a shore no mortal has seen.

Till the last bugle call

Sounds taps for us all

Its Semper Fidelis, Marine.

Blackwater Bridge, March 31, 2004

The morning traffic surged along the six-lane divided highway in typical Iraqi fashion, every driver for himselfblaring of horns, jockeying for position, ignoring traffic controlsa hazard to life and limb. A five-vehicle convoythree empty Mercedes Benz flatbed trucks and two Mitsubishi Pajero sport utility vehiclesstruggled to maintain contact in the hodgepodge of cars and trucks weaving in and out of their motorcade. A checkpoint appeared; the procession stopped while a bored Iraqi police officer cursorily inspected the vehicle occupants. The driver of the lead Mitsubishi, Wes Batalona, an American employee of Blackwater USA, the security contractor, chatted briefly with the officer before being allowed to proceed. His passenger, Scott Helvenston, another Blackwater member and former SEAL, scanned the immediate area, alert for signs of trouble. The three flatbed trucks with the Mitsubishi bringing up the rear passed through without stopping.

As the convoy entered Fallujah, it crept along a trash-strewn road bordered with small one- and two-story cinder-block stores and kebob shops. Hulks of abandoned and stripped cars littered the street. The sidewalks were crowded with residents, unemployed men in scruffy dishdashas or old work trousers and faded shirts, many smoking and most lounging around, with no money, no job, and no prospects, according to author Bing West in No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle of Fallujah. The Iraqis stared at the two Mitsubishis, hate evident on their faces. Occasionally one of the sullen onlookers gestured and shouted an obscenity.

The vehicles proceeded through the center of town, past the mayors complex and police headquarters. After passing through the main intersection, they turned left and proceeded west toward the Euphrates. The heavy traffic caused the convoy to become separated. The lead sport utility vehicle and two flatbeds were in the left lane, while the third flatbed and the other Mitsubishi stayed to the right. A roadblock appeareda dark Mercedes 300, a tan Opal sedan, and a white pickup truck with a double cabforcing the convoy to stop.

Downtown Fallujah, looking toward the Brooklyn Bridge to the west. Highway 10 is the six-lane road in the foreground. Bing West

Several Iraqi youngsters approached the lead vehicle. Scott Helvenston rolled down the tinted window and talked briefly to one of them. Two of the other boys walked over to a large group of Iraqi men on the sidewalk. Suddenly, without warning, several armed men ran from the doorways of the shops and took the rear Mitsubishi under fire, shattering the side windows. The two American occupants, Mike Teague and Jerry Zovko, were killed instantly. Their vehicle rolled to a stop beside the last flatbed truck in the convoy.

Wes Batalona grasped what was happening and attempted to make a U-turn across the median. He gunned the vehicle but was blocked by oncoming traffic and raked by a deadly burst of automatic-weapons fire. His vehicle rear-ended another and came to a stop. One of the assailants filmed the ambush with a video camera. The tape, later shown on Al Jazeera television, showed Batalona slumped to the right, almost on top of Helvenston. One of the gunmen reached in and grabbed an M4 carbine that was wedged between Batalona and the door. Another tugged a weapon free from around Helvenstons neck. The gunmen then fled.

A large crowd quickly gathered. It was estimated that more than three hundred men and boys swarmed around the vehicles chanting anti-American slogans and shouting, Allahu akbar, God is great. An account said that one of the badly wounded occupants staggered from a vehicle and fell to the ground, where he was kicked, stomped, and stabbed to death. Several Middle Eastern news crews arrived and began filming the mayhem. Their arrival seemed to further incite the crowd. An Iraqi boy threw a jug of gasoline on the vehicles and set them on fire, sending a plume of black smoke into the air. When the fires died down, the bodies of the slain Americans were pulled from the smoldering vehicles and desecrated. Two of the charred remains were then dragged behind a car past hundreds of cheering men to a green trestle bridge on the outskirts of town and strung up.

Fallujahan residents stare impassively at the camera, while three blue-shirted Iraqi policemen are in the foreground, one wearing an IP (Iraqi Police) patch on his left sleeve.