Fighting for Fallujah

Fighting for Fallujah PDF Author: John R. Ballard
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275990559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The vicious urban battle for the insurgent-controlled city of Fallujah in November 2004 was a turning point in the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq. It demonstrated the resolve of the Iraqi government to fight terrorists domestically, using both multinational and Iraqi forces, and its results included a returning population willing to vote in national elections held in January 2005. Ballard tells the story of the Fallujah campaign, beginning with the horrific deaths of the American Blackwater contractors in March 2004, and continuing through the battle, the painstaking reconstruction of the city, and the precedent-setting elections that followed. Based on first-person accounts, interviews, and official documents, this book gives readers rare insight into the significant actions and innovative techniques of the year-long fight for the city. Opening with a historical overview of the initial crisis in Fallujah and the similar coalition battle in Najaf, the book includes a detailed account of the planning and execution of the operation to retake the city. Finally, it describes the political and military lessons proven in Fallujah, including coalition force integration, information operations, urban combat techniques, interagency coordination and innovative reconstruction procedures. This is the story of real combat in Iraq—told in a way every American should understand.

Fighting for Fallujah

Fighting for Fallujah PDF Author: John R. Ballard
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275990559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The vicious urban battle for the insurgent-controlled city of Fallujah in November 2004 was a turning point in the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq. It demonstrated the resolve of the Iraqi government to fight terrorists domestically, using both multinational and Iraqi forces, and its results included a returning population willing to vote in national elections held in January 2005. Ballard tells the story of the Fallujah campaign, beginning with the horrific deaths of the American Blackwater contractors in March 2004, and continuing through the battle, the painstaking reconstruction of the city, and the precedent-setting elections that followed. Based on first-person accounts, interviews, and official documents, this book gives readers rare insight into the significant actions and innovative techniques of the year-long fight for the city. Opening with a historical overview of the initial crisis in Fallujah and the similar coalition battle in Najaf, the book includes a detailed account of the planning and execution of the operation to retake the city. Finally, it describes the political and military lessons proven in Fallujah, including coalition force integration, information operations, urban combat techniques, interagency coordination and innovative reconstruction procedures. This is the story of real combat in Iraq—told in a way every American should understand.

New Dawn

New Dawn PDF Author: Richard S. Lowry
Publisher: Savas Beatie
ISBN: 1611210518
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
This award–winning “powerful narrative history” presents a vividly detailed chronicle of grueling combat operations in Fallujah during the Iraq War (Midwest Book Review). Few places are as closely associated with blood, sacrifice, and valor as the ancient city Fallujah, forty miles west of Baghdad. This sprawling concrete jungle was the scene of two major U.S. combat operations in 2004. The first, Operation Vigilant Resolve, was an aborted effort by U.S. Marines to punish the city’s insurgents. The second, Operation Phantom Fury, was launched seven months later. Also known as the Second Battle for Fallujah, Operation Phantom Fury was a protracted house-to-house and street-to-street conflict that began on November 7th and continued unabated for seven bloody weeks. It was the largest fight of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the heaviest urban combat since the Battle of Hue City, Vietnam in 1968. By the time the fighting ended, more than 1,400 insurgents were dead, along with ninety-five Americans (and another 1,000 wounded). In New Dawn, military historian Richard Lowry draws on archival research, as well as the personal recollections of nearly 200 soldiers and Marines who participated in the battles for Fallujah, from the commanding generals who planned the operations to the privates who kicked in the doors. The result is a gripping narrative of individual sacrifice and valor that also documents the battles for future military historians. Winner of the Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal for History

Fallujah Awakens

Fallujah Awakens PDF Author: Bill Ardolino
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612511295
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
The cradle of an insurgency that plunged Iraq into years of chaos and bloodshed, Fallujah conjures up images of the brutal house-to-house fighting that occurred during the 2004 U.S. invasion of the iconic city. But attacks in the area actually peaked two years later, when American and Iraqi government forces struggled with a reinvigorated insurgency and the prospect of premature withdrawal by U.S. forces. Fallujah Awakens tells the story of the remarkable turnaround that followed. Journalist Bill Ardolino explains how local tribal leaders and U.S. Marines forged a surprising alliance that helped secure the famous battleground. It is one of the few books to recount events from both American and Iraqi perspectives. Based on more than 120 interviews with Iraqis and U.S. Marines, Ardolino describes how a company of reservists, led by a medical equipment sales manager from Michigan, succeeded where previous efforts had stalled. Circumstance combined with smart, charismatic leadership enabled Americans to build relationships with members of a Sunni tribe—once written off as dangerous and intractable— who pushed al Qaeda and other insurgents from their notoriously rebellious area. Accidental killings, intertribal rivalries, insurgents, and intrigue all conspired to undo the tenuous alliance forged between the Americans and tribesmen on Fallujah’s Peninsula. But the partnership was cemented after a Marine commander’s risky decision to welcome nearly 100 injured civilians onto a secure American facility after a ruthless chemical attack by al Qaeda. The book’s gripping storyline will appeal to readers of historical nonfiction. Its exhaustive documentation will prove valuable to military students, analysts, and historians and will help policy makers better understand what is possible in counterinsurgency. Photographs and maps further enhance the reader’s understanding of everything from tribal dynamics to the geography of firefights.

Fighting for Fallujah

Fighting for Fallujah PDF Author: John R. Ballard
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313080917
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
The vicious urban battle for the insurgent-controlled city of Fallujah in November 2004 was a turning point in the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq. It demonstrated the resolve of the Iraqi government to fight terrorists domestically, using both multinational and Iraqi forces, and its results included a returning population willing to vote in national elections held in January 2005. Ballard tells the story of the Fallujah campaign, beginning with the horrific deaths of the American Blackwater contractors in March 2004, and continuing through the battle, the painstaking reconstruction of the city, and the precedent-setting elections that followed. Based on first-person accounts, interviews, and official documents, this book gives readers rare insight into the significant actions and innovative techniques of the year-long fight for the city. Opening with a historical overview of the initial crisis in Fallujah and the similar coalition battle in Najaf, the book includes a detailed account of the planning and execution of the operation to retake the city. Finally, it describes the political and military lessons proven in Fallujah, including coalition force integration, information operations, urban combat techniques, interagency coordination and innovative reconstruction procedures. This is the story of real combat in Iraq—told in a way every American should understand.

Operation Phantom Fury

Operation Phantom Fury PDF Author: Dick Camp
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 1616732539
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
The Second Battle for Fallujah, dubbed Operation Phantom Fury, took place over an almost two-month period, from November 7 to December 23, 2004. The Marine Corps’ biggest battle in Iraq to date, it was so prolonged and fierce that it has entered the pantheon of USMC battles alongside Iwo Jima, Inchon, and Hue City. This book offers an in-depth, intimate look into Operation Phantom Fury, the single most significant battle undertaken during the occupation of Iraq. The author, a retired Marine Corps colonel with combat service in Vietnam, conducted personal interviews with combatants, from the division commander in charge of the operation down to Marine infantrymen who did the fighting. The result--illustrated with a hundred action photographs--is a rare firsthand account of the brutal reality of the war in Iraq, how this battle for a key city was fought, and how such a crucial battle looks from positions of command and from the thick of the fight.

U.S. Marines in Battle

U.S. Marines in Battle PDF Author: Timothy S. McWilliams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781782667018
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
This is a study of the Second Battle of Fallujah, also known as Operation Al-Fajr and Operation Phantom Fury. Over the course of November and December 2004, the I Marine Expeditionary Force conducted a grueling campaign to clear the city of Fallujah of insurgents and end its use as a base for the anticoalition insurgency in western Iraq. The battle involved units from the Marine Corps, Army, and Iraqi military and constituted one of the largest engagements of the Iraq War. The study is based on interviews conducted by Marine Corps History Division field historians of battle participants and archival material. The book will be of primary interest to Marines, other service members, policy makers, and the faculty and students at the service schools and academies. Historians, veterans, high school through univeristy history departments and students as well as libraries may be interested in this book as well. With full color maps and photographs.

We Were One

We Were One PDF Author: Patrick K. O'Donnell
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306815931
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
A riveting first-hand account of the fierce battle for Fallujah during the Iraq War and the Marines who fought there--a story of brotherhood and sacrifice in a platoon of heroes Five months after being deployed to Iraq, Lima Company's 1st Platoon, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, found itself in Fallujah, embroiled in some of the most intense house-to-house, hand-to-hand urban combat since World War II. In the city's bloody streets, they came face-to-face with the enemy-radical insurgents high on adrenaline, fighting to a martyr's death, and suicide bombers approaching from every corner. Award-winning author and historian Patrick O'Donnell stood shoulder to shoulder with this modern band of brothers as they marched and fought through the streets of Fallujah, and he stayed with them as the casualties mounted.

The Shadow of Death

The Shadow of Death PDF Author: Fernando Arroyo
Publisher: Fidelis Publishing. LLC
ISBN: 1737176335
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
When I returned home from my latest deployment in the U.S. Army, my life began to fall apart. My nightmares and flashbacks kept getting worse, and I reached the point where I was afraid of sleep. I decided the best days of my life were behind me and decided I was going to take my own life. One night, after heavy drinking, I placed my 1911 pistol in my mouth and said a prayer in my mind. “God, if you're there, save me,” but there was no response.I heard a metallic “click” when I deactivated the safety and began to slowly squeeze the trigger. Then I heard a BANG! I dropped the pistol and I looked around me, but there was no blood. The bang I heard was the Bible on my desk falling and hitting the floor. I fell to my knees and asked God for forgiveness. I surrendered to Jesus Christ and asked him to help me. He answered.

No True Glory

No True Glory PDF Author: Bing West
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553383191
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
"This is the face of war as only those who have fought it can describe it."–Senator John McCain Fallujah: Iraq’s most dangerous city unexpectedly emerged as the major battleground of the Iraqi insurgency. For twenty months, one American battalion after another tried to quell the violence, culminating in a bloody, full-scale assault. Victory came at a terrible price: 151 Americans and thousands of Iraqis were left dead. The epic battle for Fallujah revealed the startling connections between policy and combat that are a part of the new reality of war. The Marines had planned to slip into Fallujah “as soft as fog.” But after four American contractors were brutally murdered, President Bush ordered an attack on the city–against the advice of the Marines. The assault sparked a political firestorm, and the Marines were forced to withdraw amid controversy and confusion–only to be ordered a second time to take a city that had become an inferno of hate and the lair of the archterrorist al-Zarqawi. Based on months spent with the battalions in Fallujah and hundreds of interviews at every level–senior policymakers, negotiators, generals, and soldiers and Marines on the front lines–No True Glory is a testament to the bravery of the American soldier and a cautionary tale about the complex–and often costly–interconnected roles of policy, politics, and battle in the twenty-first century.

The Second Battle of Fallujah

The Second Battle of Fallujah PDF Author: Charles River Editors
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781537731483
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes footnotes, online resources and a bibliography for further reading "I am scared to death that they [the war hawks in Washington] are going to convince the president that they can do this overthrow of Saddam on the cheap, and we'll find ourselves in the middle of a swamp because we didn't plan to do it the right way." - Lawrence Eagleburger, former Secretary of State "Some of the heaviest urban combat U.S. Marines have been involved in since the Battle of Hue City in Vietnam in 1968." - The U.S. military's description of the battle The city of Fallujah is located in Iraq's western Anbar Province, approximately 65 kilometers west of Baghdad, the country's capital. Its history, along with the history of Iraq (whose modern borders are part of what was once known as Mesopotamia), goes back thousands of years, and the country's modern history played a strong role in shaping the fighting in and around Fallujah in 2004. Moreover, as the name of the battle implies, no description of the fighting for Fallujah is as straightforward as it may sound. In fact, there have been multiple battles for Fallujah over a span of many years, including Operation Vigilant Resolve in April 2004 (also referred to as the "First Battle of Fallujah"), Operation Al Fajr and Operation Phantom Fury (the Second Battle of Fallujah, which commenced in November of the same year), the February 2014 capture of the city by the then-Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS, which later changed its name to Islamic State), and the 2016 Iraqi-led offensive to clear ISIS from the city. The most famous of these was certainly the Second Battle, but no history about the fighting can focus solely on the events from November to December 2004, which covered the beginning and conclusion of the operations. In order to understand the offensive, it is important to understand the conditions that soldiers in combat faced, as well as the events and perceptions that helped create these conditions, including the attitudes of local residents in Fallujah, the events that contributed to the First Battle of Fallujah, the lead-up to the second battle, the ramifications for the rest of the country, and the creation of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Given the fact that fighting across Iraq is still ongoing over a decade later, it's safe to characterize the Second Battle of Fallujah had and continues to have a major influence over the evolution of the Iraq War. The Second Battle of Fallujah: The History of the Biggest Battle of the Iraq War looks at the battle widely considered to be the heaviest fighting of the conflict. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the battle like never before.