'In New Dawn, Richard Lowry presents not just a brilliant account of the battle for Fallujah, but also a useful overview of the history, economics, and culture of the region. New Dawn is about their courage, their sacrifice, and their commitment to freedom. The struggle against a determined enemy at the crossroads of civilization is the story of American kids who grew up down the block from you only to fly halfway around the world to fight in the largest battle of the war. The result is a gripping, pause-resisting narrative of individual sacrifice and valor that also documents the battles for future military historians. In addition to archival research, New Dawn is based upon 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. Lowry ( Marines in the Garden of Eden) spent years researching and writing his new campaign history. By the time the fighting ended, more than 1,400 insurgents were dead, compared to 95 Americans (and another 1,000 wounded). Death and redemption were found everywhere, from narrow streets to courtyards, kitchens, bedrooms, and rooftops. It was the largest fight of operation Iraqi Freedom and the heaviest urban combat since the Battle of Hue City, Vietnam, in 1968. Richard Lowry's New Dawn: The Battles for Fallujah is the first comprehensive history of this fighting.Īlso known as the Second Battle for Fallujah, Operation Phantom Fury was a protracted house-to-house and street-to-street combat that began on November 7 and continued unabated for seven bloody and exhausting weeks. The second, Operation Phantom Fury, was launched seven months later. The first was Operation Vigilant Resolve, an aborted effort that April by US Marines intent on punishing the city's insurgents. This sprawling concrete jungle was the scene of two major US combat operations in 2004. Few names conjure up as many images of blood, sacrifice, and valor as does this ancient city in Al Anbar province 40 miles west of Baghdad. We just turned around and started shooting and the grenade explodes.Fallujah. It’s like throwing a hand with a grenade in it at us.

“We could see the house crumble and then one of the Marines shouted out, ‘Take cover,’ and you could see a hand coming out like a horror movie. “After that, we put 20 pounds of C-4 and blew the house ,” he continued. We trapped one guy on the stairway and kept shooting him and two of our Marines, Marquez and Shafer, who got shot in the arm, they took Kasal out. He said there were two houses pushed together with a second-floor catwalk where the enemy was shooting at them and throwing grenades. We worked as Marines to take care of each other to not leave anybody behind.” “The 3rd platoon took a lot of injuries but the first and second squad from 2nd Platoon worked together with them to get them out. There were Marines trapped inside the house, and we were trying to figure out how the hell we’re going to get those guys out,” he said. “ Kasal went into this house to clear it, and was hit 13 or 14 times. “We blew it - that was one of the lucky days we had.”ĭuring Operation Phantom Fury in 2004, while assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines out of Camp Pendleton, California, Munoz and his team went to help his fellow Marines who were trapped inside a house near his compound. They were already set up, and you would just need somebody to click the send button and that was it. “We found one big cache and had to blow it in place, but I was a little bit scared one day because they used to use those Motorola cell phones. Munoz said he and his team would blow up houses that had big caches of weapons but they always feared being blown up by remote-controlled bombs. We were just kicking and firing, making sure everybody from left to right was still alive.” 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. “I was just born to be a Marine,” said Munoz, an Iraq combat vet who’d served in the Corps from 1998 to 2005.

When was operation phantom fury