They didn’t want us there, and they were ready for us. “We were getting incoming mortars, rockets, IEDs (improvised explosive devices) so it was pretty harsh. Munoz said he and his fellow Marines took part in convoys in the Sunni Triangle in the south part of Fallujah in Iraq, during the main push. His most memorable assignment, he said, was his deployment to Iraq. He also coached the rifle and pistol shooting at the Marine Corps Coaches Course. 1, 1998, and he served seven years as a security specialist and infantryman, attaining the rank of sergeant. “He was very professional,” Munoz said of his recruiter. “When I went to the Marine recruiter, he said, ‘What you want is a job. There were lots of good guys fighting in Fallujah-ten battalions worth crammed into a five-kilometer square city composed of look-alike and densely packed, low-slung, brown/gray brick buildings.“I was just born to be a Marine,” said Munoz, an Iraq combat vet who’d served in the Corps from 1998 to 2005. Ground and aviation units from other Services and nations participated.įinally there was the blue tracking problem. In Fallujah the additional challenge of a counterinsurgency environment existed, thus the need to minimize collateral damage and win hearts and minds, something not achievable if a city is razed by aerial attacks under the glare of a ubiquitous media.Īlso, it was a joint fight, both on the ground and in the air. Any type of urban CAS qualifies as one of the most complex and demanding tasks known to modern warfare. It had been substantially facilitated by CAS. The high-tempo penetrating attack envisioned by Marine commanders was realized. I never knew a time in November when I had a TIC when I didn’t get an airplane within about a minute”.Īlthough sporadic fighting continued for weeks after, it took about 10 days for the main resistance to be squelched in Fallujah. “I tell you what, for like three weeks, it felt like nothing but a continuous faucet, a continuous fire hose of airplanes. In the follow-on battle, as the Marines, soldiers, and coalition troops fought door to door throughout the city, supporting fires were perpetual, a cacophony of precisely delivered destruction.Īir strikes came continuously and in harmony with other fires most were “danger-close” and rapidly sequenced. The bombs created breaching lanes for Marines of the 3d Battalion, 1st Marines to exploit later that day.
The main assault into Fallujah in November 2004 ( Operation PHANTOM FURY/AL FAJR) commenced when eight GBU–31s, 2,000-pound joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs), dropped by Marine Fighter/Attack (All-Weather) Squadron 242 F/A–18Ds, smashed into a railroad-topped berm bordering Fallujah’s north side.
This maximized the fantastic capability of aviation precision weapons and targeting technology, and in the case of Fallujah, made fixed-wing CAS an appropriate option for supporting fires, underscoring the utility and need for tactical aviation (TacAir) in the Marine Corps. The CAS plan was built on Marine Corps C2 basics-procedural control and unity of command, which were enhanced with a common map or grid reference graphic (GRG). Urban close air support ( CAS) successfully employed in Fallujah in 2004 highlights the capability of Marine Corps-style command and control (C2) of aviation. Richard Natonski, commander of the 1st Marine Division during the battle, was the guest of honor.Ĭredit:1 Marine Expeditionary Force :11/7/14 The ceremony honored all service members who participated in the historic battle, and reunited veterans from private to general officer in a day of commemoration. : The Marines and Sailors of 1st Marine Division commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the Second Battle of Fallujah, Operation AL FAJR, by hosting a ceremony at Camp Pendleton.
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