Eighth Anniversary of Phantom Fury Nov 2004

Today marks the 8th anniversary of the assault on Fallujah, Iraq, known as Phantom Fury.  Due to good PR by the Marines the assault is often seen as a Marine assault.  In actuality it was group effort by all branches.  I like to say that the Marines could not handle it so they called in the Army who helped get their butts out of Fallujah.  The picture to the right is but part of the story of the units that were part of the attack or supported the attack.  I will not allow the Marines to take full credit for something that others fought along side them to do, rid the city of insurgents. 

When you look at this picture look at the unit on the far right.  "Army 2-2 INF" is the unit I was a part of during this time.  I was granted the honor by the U.S. Army to serve with TF 2-2 for three years.  The sector we were given as you can see was the west sector.  This was the industrial sector it was also beside the main highway out of town.  This is where the insurgents had their bomb and IED factories.  This is where some of the greatest fighting took place.

CPT Fred Dente and my assistant PFC Figaroa

You see the Marines had not been in Fallujah for three months.  When we arrived at Camp Fallujah the story is told that the Marines asked some of my joes what they did in our sector and cities in Iraq.  My Soldiers told them that we go into our cities we patrol them and rid them of the insurgents.  The Marines were shocked by this and said they had not been in their cities in three months.  Three months was plenty of time for the insurgents to gain a strong hold on the city of Fallujah.  And a strong hold they had.  They had taken US supplied barriers and used them for themselves.  Booby trapped homes.  Laid bombs and IEDs along the roads etc.  

SSG James Matteson

The fight that we were about to enter into on 8 Nov 2004 was not going to be an easy fight.  The projected losses were expected to be 50 to 80%.  My unit and I were prepared to do what we had to and prepared to pay the price because that is what we do.  Fortunately we had great leadership such as LTC Peter Newell, CPT Fred Dente, CSM Faulkenburg, SGM Bohn, 1SG Lewis, CPT Sean Sims, CPT Doug Walters, SFC Chris Simmons and others.  We had with us the best medical team a unit could ask for in doctors and medics.  This combination and the great Soldiers that were in TF 2-2 we were not going to allow there to be a 50 to 80% casualty rate.

SPC Jennifer Amato Smith

On November 8 we set outside the city and under the cover of darkness we breeched the north side of the city.  As 2-2 breeched through the raised train tracks that held booby traps and explosives the Marine unit beside us struggled with their breech in their area.  They had already lost three Marines attempting to do a breech.  They then called us and requested to use our breeched area because they could not get through.  Just one of several challenges the Marines had that we had to save their butts on.

The fight lasted two weeks.  In this time our unit used 900 rounds of artillery for our sector alone.  The amazing thing was we used that many rounds and one of the guns automatic loaders was down and they had to do it manually.  Untold rounds form Close Air Support (CAS) and countless rounds of small arms, 20mm, and tank rounds.  In the end we had only 43 casualties.  Most were returned to duty (RTD), 4 were evacuated to high hospital care yet would survive their wounds and eventually return to 2-2.  Four individuals would pay the ultimate price, CSM Steven Faulkenburg, 1LT Edward Iwan, CPT Sean Sims, and SSG James Matteson.

I will not sit by and allow the annals of history to record that the fight in Fallujah in Nov 2004, which is still studied to as one of the greatest battles of Iraq since the invasion, to be seen as just a Marines battle. For along the Marines fought amazing men and women of the Army and the greatest of these units in my opinion, as biased as it might be, was 2nd Battalion 2nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, known as the Ramrods and TF 2-2.

The Marines awarded TF 2-2 their patch as a combat patch as a form of thank you for what we did for them.  I wear that patch proudly today for two reasons.  One in honor of those men who died in the Battle of Fallujah and two because it makes the Marines mad that I can wear their patch and they cannot.  Here is to the men and women of TF 2-2 who are some of the most amazing people on earth.  May God bless them and their families.