The 2004 battle for Fallujah was the largest fight of the entire war and the beginning of the end for al Qaeda in Iraq. It was the largest American urban battle since Hue City, Vietnam. Ten-thousand American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines attacked Fallujah along the northern edge of the city on November 8th, 2004. They swept through the city and when they reached the southern edge of town on November 15th, most in the media thought the fight was over.
All of the major media outlets pulled their correspondents from the city by Thanksgiving, but the fight was far from over. Some insurgents had gone to ground inside the bunker-like houses within the city while others fled to the countryside. The fighting inside the city would not really end until Christmas, and the hunt for insurgents would go on for months.
Below is an excerpt from my upcoming book, New Dawn The story is of one of the fights in early December, along the Euphrates River:
On December 5, 2004, Dan Wittnam’s Small Craft Company went out again on a sweep along the Euphrates River, east of Ramadi with engineers from Colonel Patton’s 44th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. After a productive day of clearing caches, the boats turned west to return to Camp Blue Diamond. And again, the enemy had set up a large ambush to attack the Marines as they returned to their base. They were only seven or eight kilometers from Blue Diamond when the insurgents attacked with Rocket-Propelled Grenades (RPG) and heavy machine guns.
An RPG whizzed across the water and hit the side of Staff Sergeant Iversen’s boat. It pierced the hull and severed the port fuel line, killing his port engine. The starboard engine took a round in its block. The engine sputtered and coughed and Iversen’s boat slowed to a crawl. Now, they were sitting ducks in the hot zone. Iversen’s crew lit up both sides of the river, allowing the other boats to safely navigate through the ambush, but four soldiers had been hit, one in the neck. Pfc Andrew M. Ward was bleeding out and in urgent need of surgical attention. Iversen called Vasey for help and Doc Rubio jumped to Iversen’s boat and started working on the wounded.
Rubio had two of the soldiers bandaged before he learned of the critically-wounded soldier in the front of the boat. Rubio rushed to Ward’s side. Ward was bleeding profusely, but was still alert. Soldiers and Marines quickly moved Ward to the back of the boat and Rubio went to work. He knew that if he didn’t stop the bleeding, this young soldier would die. Rubio quickly sliced into Ward’s neck, located the damaged artery and clamped off the bleeding with and IV hose clamp. Just as he finished, Iversen said, “Doc, we need to move the people off to another boat.” Parrello, driving Vasey’s boat, was already alongside.
“What?” This was not the time to be moving this soldier. Rubio didn’t know that Iversen’s engines were nearly dead and that they were still in the kill zone. Rubio was so focused on treating the severely wounded soldier that he didn’t notice the bullets whizzing over his head. If Rubio had learned anything in his years with the Marines, it was that when you are told to do something, you don’t ask why, you just do it. Rubio rallied the soldiers around him. They lifted Ward and Rubio straddled the two boats. Rounds crackled by Rubio, standing with one foot on Vasey’s boat, the other on Iversen’s.
“Oh my God, I cannot believe I’m doing this.” He thought.
The soldiers passed Ward to Rubio and Rubio passed Ward to an Army medic in Vasey’s boat. As they were moving to Vasey’s boat, the Army medic slipped and dropped Ward on the deck. Ward started bleeding again. Rubio went to work again to secure the clamp.
“Are you good, Doc?” Vasey asked.
“Roger, I’m good.”
Parrello gunned his engines. The stern sank in the water, the water jets kicked up large white plumes and the boat lurched forward at fifty knots. When they arrived at the boat ramp only minutes later, there were three ambulances waiting. Soldiers and Marines rushed to offload Ward on a stretcher. When they hit the water, one of the soldiers panicked and let go of his corner of the stretcher. Rubio jumped into neck-deep water, grabbed the untended corner, pushed it above his head and helped get Ward to shore. They rushed Ward into one of the waiting ambulances and a First Class[1] Corpsman said, “What are you doing? He’s going to die.”
Rubio felt the anger sweep through his body. He got in the guy’s face and said, “He’s alert and he knows where he’s at. Get his ass to the Battalion Aid Station.”
Ward was rushed to a helicopter that whisked him to surgery. That night, Lieutenant Thomas came to Rubio, sat down and told him that Ward had made it back to the hospital and into the operating room, but died while the surgeons were trying to repair his artery.
The next morning, Juan Rubio went to the Battalion Aid Station to confront the First Class Corpsman. “How can I trust my casualties to someone who has already given up?” Rubio asked, not expecting an answer. “I don’t want to see you on my medevac team ever again.” Then, he turned and walked out.
[1] Petty Officer First Class, Hospital Corpsman 1, E6 is equivalent to a Marine Staff Sergeant.
Watch for New Dawn: the Battles for Fallujah by Richard S. Lowry (author of Marines in the Garden of Eden and The Gulf War Chronicles). It tells the entire story of Operation Phantom Fury and will be in bookstores in May of 2010. Visit www.RichardSLowry.com to learn more about Richard and his work.
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Sarah Martin said:
Hi, I saw that a bunch of people here admire our soldiers. I work with the guys who made Perfect Valor, about the heroes who took Fallujah. You all might be interested in this. http://bit.ly/PerfectValor
January 8th, 2010 at 11:21 am