All language subtitles for LAST 600 METERS THE BATTLES OF NAJAF AND FALLUJAH - Documentary (2025)

ANNOUNCER: This program
contains mature content,

including graphic
imagery of war.

Viewer discretion
is advised.

(soldier voices on radio)

MAST. SGT. ERICKSON:
Straight up combat,

unconventional combat,
we will always win that.

Foreign policy,
I don't make it,

I just deliver the
last 600 meters of it.

♪

(helicopter flies overhead)
♪

(rioting in the streets)

(car alarm blares)

(shouting)

(car horn sounds)

(shouting)

(shouting and chanting
in a foreign language)

(car horn sounds)

BRIG. GEN. TOOLAN:
I had gotten wind

that there were
three contractors

from Blackwater
who had,

attempted to ent-
enter Fallujah.

There was a large
crowd there.

They knew that these
folks were coming in

and they stopped them

and killed the- the
Blackwater contractors

and dismembered
their bodies.

When that happened, when
we recovered the bodies,

there was discussion now about
what are we going to do.

And, as you might suspect,
there was an awful lot of

furor and anger about
the way Americans

had been treated. Not
only outside our- my-

my organization,
but, I think

back in the United States
there was thoughts of,

you know, Somalia and
other incidents and just

wasn't something that was
going to be tolerated.

(shouting)

WEST: Major General
Mattis said,

"I have pictures of the
people who did this.

"They were foolish
enough to pose

"in front of the cameras.

"I will track down
each of them with our

"Special Forces and we
will arrest or kill

each person responsible."

And there were
about 24 names.

But instead he was told,
"No, you don't understand.

"At the top level of our
government the order is

seize the city."

(tank rumbles)

♪

(soldiers talking)

SOLDIER: Alright,
everybody got it?

SOLDIER 2: First,
second, third squad."

♪

LT. COL. MCCOY:
We got the order

on about 8 April to
move down there.

We moved the battalion
inside of 24 hours,

pulled them in,

turned over our
battle space,

road marched about 100
miles down into Fallujah,

spent a couple hours
refitting, rearming,

and then the morning
of 10 April,

we launched into the
attack with everybody else.

(rumbling)

(gunfire, artillery fire)

(airplanes flying)

(helicopters flying)

(soldiers talking)

LT. COL. OLSON: If
you're gonna fight

a city fight, be prepared
to go house to house,

and be prepared to start
at one end of the city

and fight your way
through to the other end.

It became evident that if
we just took a position

and sat there
and dug in that

we'd leave the
initiative to the enemy.

(artillery gunfire)

LT. COL. MCCOY: It was
obvious that the enemy

was caught by surprise.

They were making
incredibly stupid errors,

costly errors,

driving right into our-
our fields of fire,

trying to reinforce.

They didn't know
where we were,

and- and when you
see that happening,

then- and- and we're
knocking them down

like it's going
out of style,

you know that you have 'em
at a complete disadvantage.

(gunfire)

(sirens blare)

MAJ. STEVENSON: To add
additional chaos to it was

we had the Fallujah
hospital, which was

smack dab in the middle
of my perimeter.

And the hospital
administrator, what I

found out later was that
he claimed that we were

denying medical attention,
denying medical supplies,

etc., all of which were
blatantly untrue, and

no one ever came to ask me
were any of these things

true, they just sort of got
printed and/or televised.

(baby crying)

(indistinct conversations)

BRIG. GEN. TOOLAN:
Al Jazeera

was right in the city,

and they were used as a
very effective tool by the

insurgents to display
a humanitarian crisis.

(indistinct conversations)

(indistinct conversations)

(man smacks top of car)

WEST: Ambassador Bremer
had been so concerned in

Baghdad by all the
complaints of the Iraqis

about the images they were
seeing on Al Jazeera, that

Ambassador Bremer called to
General Abizaid who was in

charge of all our troops
in the cent-

in the central area

and he said, "You and
I have to meet with the

senior Iraqis whom
I have appointed,"

whom Bremer had appointed.

And when they did the
senior Iraqis said,

"You must stop this, you
absolutely must stop this.

You're breaking
Iraq apart."

And so Bremer and
Abizaid agreed

to a temporary ceasefire.

(dog barking)

(dog barking)

BRIG. GEN. TOOLAN:
The hard part

and the thing that we as

commanders are responsible
for is to be able to relay

the reasons for what
we're doing to our

Marines and sailors
and- and it was hard...

it was hard for
me to do that.

It was hard for me to try
and explain to them why

we were pulling out
of the city yet

when we knew that we

were probably 30 hours,
36 hours from securing the

objectives in the city that
we wanted and then begin

operations inside the city.

WEST: The operations
officer when I was there

turned to Col.
McCoy and he said,

"We're getting phone calls,"

in other words they were
listening to the other side

and they're saying,
"They're from the south,

they're from the west,
they're from the east."

He said, "They have
lost cohesion."

They being the insurgents.

"We can roll them up and
finish this in a day."

And when McCoy called
that back he was told,

"No you are to stop
right where you are.

"You don't have permission

to carry this battle
any farther."

LT. COL. MCCOY: And we sat
there for the next 30 days.

Even though it
was a ceasefire,

combat continued
throughout-

throughout those 30
days at a pretty good clip,

particularly in
those first two weeks.

BRIG. GEN. TOOLAN:
The insurgents

kept pressing us.

And it became a back-
and-forth thing.

SOLDIER: Hey, there's
people getting out

of a ******* car.

BRIG. GEN. TOOLAN:
Every night,

every- every night
they would move a

little bit closer and
the next morning,

lo and behold,

they'd be a lot closer
to my- my position

fire on 'em and we'd
have a firefight.

This went on from- all the
way really through April.

SOLDIER: Yeah, they're
right down here.

They're to our east.

(gunfire)

MAJ. STEVENSON:
We were having

a real tough time
at some points,

battling, the- what we
called the three-block war.

We're decisively
engaging the enemy,

and then at the other
end of the- our position

we might be, ya know,

talking with a seven-
year-old kid about

whatever, handing him
candy, ya know,

he's teaching us
basic Arabic

or we're teaching him
basic English skills.

It's just, you know, the
Marines had to know which

way the switch was.

Was it decisively engaging
the enemy or was it,

ya know, helping
a- a old lady

carry a water bucket from

the Euphrates River
back to her house.

(tank rumbles)

(soldiers talking)

LT. COL. OLSON: There
was an element of-

surreality to it,

where the negotiations did
not necessarily match the

events that I had
seen minutes before

on the ground.

Or to leave a- leave a
meeting where an agreement

had been struck to
have the- the bad guys

lay down their arms,

turn the city control
back over to its elected

representatives and to its
Iraqi Security Forces

and then on the way to

put that word
out to my battalion,

to be hit in an ambush or
to come up on a company

that was in contact

with a platoon-sized
force of bad guys

who evidently had
not gotten the word.

(fighters talking)

(car honks)

BRIG. GEN. TOOLAN:
Bottom line is

is that now
there was no security

for the city and so
something had to be done,

somebody had to
restore order.

And the negotiators on the
Iraqi side brought up a

recommendation that they
take responsibility,

and for the next 30, 45
days they formed this

organization which
became known

as the Fallujah Brigade

which was really led by
former Iraqi officers,

former soldiers put
the uniform back on.

(indistinct)

LT. COL. MCCOY: I
thought a lot of them

were the guys that we had
been fighting, already.

But what's a few
RPGs between friends?

And if this is going to
be the political solution,

then- then we're going to
do our- our dead-level best

to make it succeed.

(vehicle sounds)

Part of the deal,
as we turned over

the battle space,
if you will,

to the Fallujah Brigade,

was to conduct a meeting.

General Mattis was going
to conduct a meeting at the

mayor complex in
downtown Fallujah.

We went in, we did our
job, came back out.

There was, I think,
hope at that moment,

but in the Iraqi minds,

I think they saw that
as- as our capitulation,

just from the cheers
and- and taunts

as we drove out
of the city.

Cheers that they had-
that we were leaving,

and taunts that they
had turned away the

United States Marine Corps.

(car honks)

(cheering)

RICKS: I was in Baghdad at
the time and watched that

and as I said
I'd listen to-

you could hear the
sermons on the- on-

coming out of the
mosque and so on.

It was an extraordinary
time in Baghdad.

It was the first time,
I think, that a lot of

American officials really
realized this thing was

going very badly.

That, despite
the happy talk

out of the Bush
administration

and out of
Ambassador Bremer,

that Iraq was a much
more troubled place

than they realized.

I remember thinking, "I
thought this was bad.

I hadn't thought it
was gonna be this bad."

BOOT: You have to remember,
we were fighting-

Marines and soldiers were
fighting in Fallujah

at the same time that this
uprising was occurring

in central and
southern Iraq.

So all of a sudden, it
seemed like there was a

Tet Offensive going on

or worries about
another Tet Offensive

with the entire country
rising up against us.

Muqtada al-Sadr and some of
the other insurgent leaders

were able to block
key highways,

these main supply routes,

running into Baghdad
and so our troops

were on the verge of
running out of water

and ammunition and food
and basic supplies.

So this was in- in-
in many ways,

one of the hairiest moments

that we faced in the
entire war in Iraq.

♪

1ST LT. MOULTON: The
terrain was just

unbelievable.

It was- it was
unlike anything

that I ever would
have anticipated.

I mean the tombs were
all above ground

and below ground, but
they were big structures.

It's not like an American
cemetery where you just

have a- a wide-open flat
space with- with gravestones,

no, these are,

these are very elaborately
constructed tombs.

And they were
practically all built

on top of each other.

(gunfire)
♪

CAPT. MORAN: It's
just a huge cemetery.

I think it's 15
square kilometers,

and people
describe it as a-

as a New Orleans-style
cemetery on- on steroids.

(gunfire and explosions)
♪

1ST LT. MOULTON:
It also provided

an incredible
defensive position for

the militia because they
could hide anywhere.

I mean they could
hide underground;

they could hide above us

in these little minarets,
in these mini-mosques and,

they could pop out
from behind these tombs,

you know, a mere five
or ten feet in front of us

without our knowing that
they were there beforehand.

♪

MAST. SGT. ERICKSON: As
soon as I got there,

told their commander,

"Sir, we're- we want to
start, we want to start-

"we want to start

"conducting sniper
operations tonight.

We want to infill as soon
as the sun goes down."

And, I told him that I
wanted to go all the way up

to within about 400
meters of the Old City.

I told him I wanted to go
down the other end of the

gravesite- graveyard
basically and he looked at

me and said, "Sergeant,
you're going to die."

And I said, "Sir, what
are you talking about?"

And he got this thousand-
yard stare and he

told me about how an M1
Abrams tank with a Bradley

behind it had gone down
one of these small,

funeral roads that
runs north to south.

Very narrow road, no room
for vehicles to maneuver.

And as it drove down a
Mahdi Militia man had

jumped from behind a grave
onto the top of the tank,

had shot the commander
and the loader,

the two Americans on
the top of the tank,

and had jumped off

the other side of the tank
before the Bradley fighting

vehicle behind it
could engage them

and had disappeared.

And, because of that it was
almost as though there was

a boogeyman out there.

They knew during the day
watching them with unmanned

aerial vehicles that there
were small groups of bad

guys out in the city, but
they knew that there were

more at night.

They were hiding down
in the catacombs.

(gunfire)

1ST LT. MOULTON:
Definitely,

we definitely got
the impression

that we were
being surrounded.

And that night when we set
in for the defense was-

was very nerve-wracking.

For a while we had a
Spectre Gunship above us,

circling around overhead
and- and sporadically

firing into the
cemetery just around us.

And that was an
incredible feeling,

that was a very
comforting feeling.

(artillery fire
and explosions)

And then a few laters they
were gone, and there was

this- this awful silence
and, you know, you really

knew then that you were
alone and that you had to

absolutely rely on that
Marine ten feet away from

you in the dark to stay
awake and be looking

through his night vision
goggles to make sure that

no one snuck up on us cause
it would have been so easy,

it would have been so easy.

♪

LT. COL. MAYER: 120, 130
degrees, fighting there.

So you're in this- this
cemetery made out of-

completely out of mortar
and construction,

it just bakes down
there, like an oven.

And the- the tankers-
it was so hot;

the Marine tanks are
not air-conditioned.

And so, because of the
heat inside of the tanks,

we'd have to rotate
them out every hour.

And the Marines were
rotated every hour,

and the battle lasted
for three hours,

that they ended
up putting the

I- IV sleeves in their arms
and leavin' them there,

where they'd be revived.

And then the Marines
would, you know,

wake up after 45 minutes,

after being refreshed,
jump back in the tanks,

and go right back
into the front lines.

(explosions)
♪

1ST LT. MOULTON:
When I was standing

right alongside
Lieutenant Sellars,

I mean our platoons
were right together and-

and I guess so some
Marines from his platoon

it turned out, were- were
shouting and I went up to

see what was- what
was wrong and,

one of the Marines
had been shot.

He'd been shot through
the neck and had bled out.

♪

I guess maybe one of the
toughest things was that

the Marines that couldn't
have been more than 10 feet

or 10 or 20 feet to
either side of him

hadn't seen that
he'd been shot.

And so, you know, I guess
in those last few moments

he died alone and that was-
I think that was tough for

all of us to see,
especially tough.

♪

1ST LT. CUOMO: When I
got back on the 5th,

my platoon picked me up
the morning of the 5th.

New lieutenant
was rotating in.

And I pulled back
into our base,

battalion XO came
running to my hooch.

Said, "Scott get your boys,
get in your Humvees and get

to Najaf, a Huey
just got shot down."

"Roger that sir."

And I turned.

As I was quickly moving
towards my vehicle I said,

"Sir, do I know
what I'm doing,

where are we fighting?"

He said, "Just get on
the road and drive there.

"You'll figure it
out on the way.

Drive until you
run into Tiger,"

who was our tank platoon.

And that'd be almost the
equivalent of driving from

Quantico to Nor- you
know, Southern Maryland.

Just get on 95, there are
some bad guys in between.

Find Tiger. Deal with it.

(road noises)

CAPT. MORAN: Very quickly

we were reinforced
by an Army-

two Army cavalry squadrons.

We also received an Apache
helicopter squadron.

So all- all of a sudden

within a period
of a few days

the MEU became this-
this joint taskforce.

Army helicopter squadron,
two cavalry battalions,

our battalion landing team,
all on the battlefield,

all working, sort of, in
this now joint environment

which was- which
was interesting.

(artillery fire)

MASKED INSURGENT SPEAKING:
I am from Najaf city.

OK.

I like Ali.

I believe God.

Also you believe God.

If you all believe God,
not kill Muslim.

You are not believe God...

(insurgents chanting)

CAPT. MORAN: The
Mahdi Militia is the-

the armed military
wing of- of

Muqtada al-Sadr's movement.

And when- when-
when we were there

he was trying to control,

the mosque in the city
of Najaf because of its

religious importance and
that I think in turn

gave him some
political power.

(crowd shouting)

LT. COL. MAYER:
Muqtada al-Sadr

is the son
of the Imam Sadr,

his father, who was
killed by Saddam Hussein.

Sadr- Muqtada al-Sadr
has a large following,

largely due to his
father's influence.

Muqtada also has a large
following of young,

military-age Shia who
follow his kind of

hot brand rhetoric

that he puts out against
the coalition efforts

and against the
current Iraqi government.

SOLDIERS: Said there's four
people in the house...

(explosion)

OK, back it up,
back it up...

LT. COL. KELLEY:
We were told

you can target
anybody in that

organization except Sadr
and so what happened is,

as it normally happens
with Special Forces,

our intelligence does
not normally come from

some spy satellite or
something like that,

it- it comes from
ground level.

The teams who are out there
living throughout Iraq

in different areas,

they have ground truth,

they work with the
Iraqis in that area

and they- they develop
most of the targets.

(commotion)

I was able to tell
the battalion,

"Go after Sadr's
lieutenants,"

and their scouts
developed the targets.

(crashing sounds)

(soldiers shouting)
(gunfire)

SOLDIER: Hey, is
that room locked?

SOLDIER 2: Yeah.

LT. COL. KELLEY:
That gave a signal

to the other lieutenants,

"Okay, we're fair game"
and they went on the run.

They went in hiding
and Shibani,

who was Sadr's
number two man,

worked his way
down to Najaf and

was working on getting
out of the country,

working on escaping to Iran

when 512, Captain
Tarlavsky's team,

developed very
good information

using their scouts on
where Shibani was,

where other Sadr
lieutenants were

and put together
a raid with

Iraqi Special Forces
led by Americans

to take down those
lieutenants.

And the result of
that was Shibani

and 43 other senior
Sadr lieutenants

and about 50
tons of weapons.

(soldiers shouting)
♪

(explosions and gunfire)
♪

CAPT. MORAN: During
the middle phase

of the battle when
were doing these-

these many raids
into Kufa and

parts of Najaf to sort of
keep the enemy off balance,

one of the raid
targets on August 15th

was Sadr's house
and if he was there,

we- we were pretty
sure he wasn't,

but just gain
intelligence,

or- or see- see
what was in there.

As we went in, we finally
got into his house

and up to his bedroom were
amused to see these iconic

American tough-guy actors
framed on his dresser.

So there was the Arnold
Schwarzenegger photograph,

the Clint Eastwood
photograph,

the Sylvester
Stallone photograph,

the Indiana
Jones photograph.

All these were his,
I assume, kind of his

personal heroes that
he had adopted from

American culture.

(Sadr speaking)
(chanting)

(Sadr speaking)

LT. COL. MAYER: Here
you have a site,

the Imam Ali Shrine,

that's being held hostage
by Muqtada al-Sadr

and his Mahdi Militia.

You want to get rid of the-
the terrorists, so to speak,

but you don't want
to harm the hostage.

In this case, it's a shrine
that's important to the

Islam faith.

And so, it puts the Marines
in a very tough situation.

How do you get rid
of the bad guys

without destroying
the hostage?

1ST LT. CUOMO: Colonel
Mayer will tell you,

he- he emphasized
very strongly

and it paid
huge dividends,

not just for
the MEU and BLT

but for, I would argue,

our entire strategic
mission, in the long war,

not just Iraq.

He came down,
"Scott, your platoon

will not shoot the mosque."

"Yes sir."

"Do not shoot the mosque."

"Yes, sir."

"Scott, do not
shoot the mosque."

"Yes, sir."

OFFICER: (indistinct)
speed of departure

since we wish not to die
in this man's company.

We will return safely
tomorrow morning.

Who will rouse himself
every year on that day.

Show his neighbors
his scars

and tell him
(indistinct) stories

of all their great
feats of battle.

And these stories you
will teach your son.

And from this day,

until the end
of time,

we shall be remembered.

ALL IN UNISON: We few,
we happy few,

we band of brothers.

Whoever sheds his
blood with me

shall forever
be my brother.

OFFICER: And those
men too afraid to go,

will think themselves
lesser men,

as they have heard
how we have fought

and died together.

OFFICER: Alpha!
MARINES: Radiers!

SOLDIER: Go,
go, go, go, go.

Move, move, move, move.

(gunfire and explosions)

SOLDIER: Okay, roger,
Basher, gimme a-

you got a visual

on those tanks right there?

Yeah, roger, I saw that,
too, just to the...

1ST LT. MOULTON: The
gunship came in and,

I don't know, I guess
I expected to see it

shoot a little farther away

and it, you know, no
kidding, I mean they were,

they were dropping
those rounds

about 50 yards ahead of us.

SOLDIER: Looking a little
east of those tanks though,

Basher...

(gunfire)

BASHER: We knew that we
weren't to hit the mosque

and also we weren't to hit
within a certain distance

of the mosque, to make sure
that our weapons effects

didn't hit the mosque.

That's one of the- the great
aspects of the gunship is

we do fly at an altitude,
and our weapons are such

that it does engage us to
allow precision engagement,

I mean, we have the awesome
capability that we're

flying over, and we
can look at it;

we see the target

and we can say,
"We'll shoot that car,

and not that car."

(gunfire)

We can shoot close to
friendly troops and say,

"We're shooting within 40
meters of your position.

"We won't hit you,

"but we'll kill
the guys that are

trying to kill you."

(explosion)

♪

LT. GEN. METZ: We very
quickly were beginning

to put together a plan

that would force
the militia out of

the Imam Ali Shrine.

Because by that time
the- the fights in the-

in the cemetery were-
were pretty well over

and we- we controlled

everything outside of
the Old City of Najaf.

But essentially we were
going to have to deliver

the 36th Commandos,

Iraqis to go in the
Imam Ali Shrine.

So the rehearsals and
the- the tactical part of

working with the
36th Commandos

was the focus of the-

of most of the days as we
developed that plan.

♪

CAPT. MORAN: The Old
City which was a-

a small circular city that
surrounded the mosque.

And that circle was
only a kilometer across.

So any- any modern weapon
on- on the battlefield,

and we had many, we
had three battalions

worth of heavily armed
soldiers and Marines.

Any- any weapon could shoot
across that kilometer

easily.

So the- the- just the geometry
of converging three units

on a circle, if you think
about it, they're all-

end up shooting
at each other,

became just a- a
geometric nightmare.

(loudspeaker voice calling
people to prayer)

(explosions and gunfire)

LT. COL. KELLEY:
This was some of

the most compartmented,

complex, urban terrain that
I have- I have ever seen.

So what was worked out,
what was proposed and what

was accepted is that our
snipers could take the shot

as long as they were not-
the enemy was not standing

in front of or on the
Imam Ali Shrine

and what- what that did is

that very quickly changed
the complexion of

the battlefield because
you went from enemy who had

complete freedom of
movement anywhere they'd

want to go with weapons to
enemy who knew that if I'm

in the street with a weapon
or if I'm standing on a

rooftop with a cell phone
and binoculars adjusting

mortar fire on
the Americans,

that there's a good chance
that I will be killed.

♪

(gunfire)
♪

MAST. SGT. ERICKSON:
The plan was to use

my snipers in a
overwatch position

to cover the Iraqi
counterterrorist force

and the Iraqi 36th
Commandos as they did the

final assault
on the mosque.

The hard-line fighters, the
more experienced ones were

going to be right there
around the mosque.

That was going to be
the final showdown,

and we recognized that
they outnumbered

our Iraqi Commandos a lot.

♪

LT. COL. MAYER: We pretty
much did what we called

squeezing, not a tactical
term, not a military term,

but we all understood it.

And it was, gradually
shrink this exclusion zone

around the-
around the mosque,

so we squeeze 'em- we
squeezed the Mahdi Militia

further and further
inside the shrine.

And once they were completely
boxed up in the shrine,

we- we would drive and
get it so that the

Iraqi security forces could
then go and clear it

of the Mahdi Militia.

And so, only Iraqis
would go into the shrine

to clear it.

1ST LT. CUOMO: The
rules of engagement,

if you call it a giant
box around the mosque,

as it went day 1,

day 2, day 3, it
kept getting smaller.

Smaller and smaller and
smaller until it was,

"Just don't hit
the mosque."

♪

LT. COL. MAYER: On the
night of the 25th,

we moved them in towards
the mosque in the Old City.

We got to about 500 meters
away from the actual gates

of the mosque, and there
was this line of hotels.

Each hotel was
four stories high.

There was four on
each side of the road.

That road was the main
avenue of approach to bring

the Iraqi army up to
the- up to the shrine.

That was how we were
going to get 'em there.

♪

(gunshot)

MAST. SGT. ERICKSON:
And it turns out the Seals

had been playing tag with a
enemy sniper team that-

obviously very
well skilled and-

they knew which building
the sniper was in,

but the sniper also
knew which building the

Coalition was in and he
would shoot holes through

the walls to try to hit
Coalition soldiers inside

this building.

So the- the Seal
snipers and the-

the Cavalry snipers

were actually having
to knock holes through

multiple walls and get two
or three rooms back inside

of the building

to keep this guy
from shooting at 'em.

♪

LT. COL. MAYER: The
fighting's intense

in there.

And the Marines
cleared each floor,

but down in the basement,

the fighters were
all pushed down

in the basement.

And down there, it became
a hand-to-hand fight and it

was so close.

♪

1ST LT. MOULTON: We were
clearing out these rooms

and- and Lieutenant
Schickling's platoon

just next to mine,

they ran into a bunch of
insurgents in the basement.

And PFC Cullenward was
at the head of a stack,

and- and just at that moment
in complete darkness an

insurgent just burst out
of the room and essentially

ran into him and he
couldn't get his weapon off

so he grabbed
his- his bayonet

and- and stabbed this
guy in the face.

You know, but that's
what it came down to.

So you can have all this

fancy technology
in the world.

I mean you can have 50
yards away a Spectre

Gunship shooting 40-milli-
millimeter cannon shells

to take out in-

insurgents that we
couldn't see and yet

right there and then it
came down to, you know,

being able to fight a guy
to the ground with a knife.

(distant gunfire)
♪

LT. COL. KELLEY:
The enemy was in

very large buildings, very
compartmented terrain.

And ultimately over time
we were able to build a

convincing enough picture
of what was going on there

that you can get permission
to drop precision-guided

munitions on sites like
building three and four

across the street from
the Imam Ali Shrine.

(explosion)

Big risk, but our guys had
been in there and they knew

that the enemy was in
those buildings,

was in the
subterranean levels

under those buildings.

KOTECKI: RPG we recovered
during a hotel raid...

Charlie Company...
fighting hole...

possible tunnel...

(soldiers talking)

notice the ladder going
up to the ground level...

(soldiers talking)

(traffic sounds, honking)

(sirens blaring)

1ST LT. CUOMO: Somehow the
Ayatollah Sistani comes

from down south, some
convoy with thousands of

Shia Muslims and we get,
"Hey, the fighting's over."

You know, the Marines said,

"What do you mean
the fighting's over?

We've been fighting
for the last-"

"Fighting's done.

"Sadr handed the keys
over to Sistani.

We've killed many of his
guys, and he's done."

(indistinct sounds)

CAPT. MORAN: Sistani
is the Grand Ayatollah

of- of Shia Islam so

the closest that they have
to a pope or- or a unified,

unitary-type figure
in their religion.

(people chanting)

And he arrives with this-
this huge procession of

people to end the fight.

And he- and he inserts
himself between the

Coalition and the
Mahdi Militia,

negotiates with
Muqtada al-Sadr,

and secures the keys to
the Imam Ali Shrine.

So now it is in control
of the Grand Ayatollah.

♪

1ST LT. MOULTON:
The next day

we woke up and it was a
really eerie silence.

I mean this was
the center of

the- the battle that we had

essentially been fighting
for the past month

and it was just
totally silent.

And it was a strange
feeling because I think,

you know, we had built up
to this moment so much that

we really wanted to finish
the job and we wanted to-

to- root- to just
take out this militia

and be done with it.

And so we weren't happy

when the settlement
came through.

You know, Najaf got worse
quickly thereafter

and the militia started
coming back into town.

They knew the
Marines had left.

And they knew that as much
success as we had had in

those sh- few short months
in building up the Iraqi

Security Forces,

they weren't ready, they
weren't ready yet.

And, and I think
we left too soon.

♪

MAJ. GEN. SCALES: We
didn't have the forces

in place to fight against
two enemies simultaneously.

We saw our cen- the enemy's
center of gravity as being

the Sunni insurgency,
not the Shias.

And the main thing we
needed to do at the time

was to quell the Shia
insurgency and put them

back in the box so that we
could turn the majority

of our firepower and our
attention on the Sunnis.

Because clearly the Sunnis
were the greater threat

and they needed to be
dealt with first.

(engine rumbles)

1ST LT. GRAPES:
Basically, I think

that we all
thought and felt

that it was the worst
place in the world.

You know, pretty much the
center of all insurgency,

corruption, evil
plotting and scheming,

in all of Iraq.

Every nay- every day

all we got was bad news
coming out of Fallujah.

We knew that we couldn't
go anywhere near it.

All the, you know, enemy's
logistics and planning and

coordination for their
attacks across the country

was being conducted
in that city.

We wanted to go,

I mean, for- for four
or five months

we were just waiting on
the edge of a knife,

"When are we
gonna get to go

and take care of
business there?"

(metal clanking)

CPL. BENDER: After
the first Fallujah,

they knew we
were coming back.

They knew the Marine Corps
would not take a slap in

the face like that.

They were coming back, and
that's- they used that time.

They dug trenches.

They fortified houses.

They were ready.

I mean, they
were building...

a labyrinth of
death, basically,

for- for the Marines
to flow through.

(fighter jet sounds)

(singing)

(explosion)

(singing)

(speaking a
foreign language)

(speaking a
foreign language)

BRIG. GEN. TOOLAN: He
really came out in pre-

in living color
around June.

And it was almost like, the
first fight in Fallujah was

like a siren song for the-

all insurgents to sort
of muster in- in Fallujah.

LT. GEN. METZ:
The insurgents,

Sunni- mainly Sunni,
controlled Fallujah.

They- they- they
owned terrain.

I mean they-
it was their's.

And Zarqawi and- and the Al
Qaeda piece began to-

to move in

and take advantage
of that safe haven.

(speaking a
foreign language)

(screaming)

(speaking a
foreign language)

LT. COL. MCCOY: When I went
back to the original CP,

I was able to see the Nicholas
Berg beheading on the video.

It- it just confirms

that we're in a f-
locked in a fight

with a- a murderous enemy
that is without honor.

If anything, that just
stiffens our resolve to-

to keep going after
these guys.

I mean, they-
they want us dead

and- and they mean every
word that they say.

LT. GEN. METZ: General Casey's
challenge was to ensure

that the Allawi government

was- was in support
of an attack

in Fallujah because it was
clearly going to trigger

a- a Sunni reaction.

And I think as the
beheadings and the

atrocities came out of
Fallujah, more and more

people realized that Al
Qaeda was there,

that it was a cancer, that
it had to be cut out.

LT. COL. BUHL: The plan was
to clear from the north,

from the high population
concentrated areas,

push them to the south,

which was mo- generally
more open terrain;

the area known as
Queens at the very

south end of the city
had detached housing.

It was a newer-

of newer architecture
and construction.

Also the industrial area

to the southeast

corner of the city.

Again open- characterized
by more open terrain,

larger, big
structures, etc.

This would be an
area we could more

ya know, apply our combined
arms with more effect.

(loudspeaker blares in
a foreign language)

LT. GEN. METZ: I think one
of the most successful

parts of the operation was
a psychological operation

which alerted the citizens
of Fallujah that they

needed for their own safety
to be out of the city.

And we estimate of a city
of about 300,000 that about

270,00 of 'em left.

Now most people would
say that would create a

humanitarian
problem somewhere,

but you gotta understand
th- this - the society

that exists in Iraq

could assimilate over
200,000 people into homes

and- and other places
and we didn't create the

humanitarian problem.

Although that
potential was there,

we- we planned for it

and stored food
and comfort items.

(helicopter sounds)
♪

(digging sounds)
♪

SOLDIER: (laughs)
Yeah! Hells bells!

♪

CPL. SLAWATYCKI: There's
a lot of downtime in war,

and,

so, you know everything
about everybody

that you're with,

especially the guys
you're in charge of,

like my team, I knew- I mean,
I knew, you know, families,

and they knew everything
about me, and, yeah,

they were, you know,
Lance Corporals,

and I was a Corporal,
but that, a lot of times,

that doesn't matter
when- when you're there.

SOLDIER: Living the dream,
dog, living the dream.

(digging sounds)

CPL. BENDER: These guys
were tight-knit, you know,

they were- they were
together, they were one,

and I was this-
who's the new guy?

A new guy right
before you're-

you need to be as be-
the best you can be.

And so, when I heard these
talks about 70 percent

casualties or
whatever else, I-

you know, I had kind
of written myself off.

I said if anybody
gets lost in here,

it's gonna be an outsider;
it's gonna be a new guy.

SOLDIER: I give you
Mortimus Maximus!

(laughing, cheering
and booing)

LT. COL. BUHL: Just
for a moment today,

just enjoy yourselves for
a couple of minutes,

'cause after this,

it's as deadly
serious as it's been

for the last five months
for this battalion...

and all the work that
it took to get here.

So God bless all the
Charioteers and all of YOU.

Fighting for freedom,
freeing this country from

the terrorist oppression
that we all know too well.

("Eye of the Tiger" song
playing on loudspeaker)

(distant gunfire)

1ST LT. GRAPES: The day
prior to the assault

we spent in the desert

about a kilometer
north of Fallujah,

in some fighting positions
we dug in over the night.

And then that morning, I
think around 0400, 0500,

we got in our column of
Humvees and tanks and tracks

and they blew
a breach lane

in the railroad track to
the north of the city.

We crossed that breach
probably around 0800

and we were in the city

and fighting within
half an hour.

(engines rumble)

CPL. BENDER: We
all loaded up

and we're sitting
in these tracks,

just crammed in there
like we always are.

You know tracks are
basically like a bulldozer,

they can spin on a
dime and do a 180,

and I remember just
spinning the track,

the ramp starts
dropping, and

guys' eyes were wide open.

(gunfire)
(shouting)

You know,
you're wired.

We come up, and we're right
beside this house and we're

looking down the street,
and I think we were just

kinda getting our
wits about us,

and this fireball just
explodes right beside us.

This was like a
sledgehammer to the chest,

and boom, hit this wall.

And I remember kind
of shaking my head,

and of course you
can't hear anything.

You got these guys
yelling and it goes from

"Hey, Marine,
get over here!"

to "Woowooowooo."

Like, you can't- guys are
yelling and you just can't

hear it because
your head's rung.

We didn't understand
what had happened.

We thought, you know, a
car exploded or whatever it

was, and as we pulled guys
back into this courtyard,

we cleared the first house
we were in, you know,

our staff sergeant
tell us that was a tank.

And we'd never-
personally I'd never been

that close to a
tank when it fired,

and we were probably
less than six feet

from the front of
an Abrams main gun.

And it thumped, you know,
it rung all of our bells.

(gunfire)

LT. GEN. NATONSKI:
On the peninsula,

which was just across the

river from the
city of Fallujah,

we had a- a joint force of-

a joint combined force
of Marines, soldiers,

and the Iraqi 36th
Commando battalion

move up the peninsula
and secure the hospital,

which was right
across the river.

(vehicle brakes squealing)

LT. COL. KELLEY:
During the first part

of Fallujah there
had been a lot of

very inflammatory
news coverage

from that hospital

and so the plan that
we came up with was that

Green Berets will lead
the Commando Battalion

as the first assault,
ground assault of the-

the larger
Fallujah assault.

The first opening
action will be

the Iraqis liberating
the hospital.

And so that- that's what
those guys executed.

That's what Mike Manley,

that's what the Iraqi
commandos executed.

(shouting)
(gunfire)

MASTER SGT. MANLEY: The
door we came to was locked.

(explosion)

We breached that door, got
inside and started flowing

through the eastern
side buildings.

We encountered very
few- few people.

We- we did find in the
emergency room quite a few,

actual doctors
and what not.

We picked them up.

We found some seriously
wounded individuals.

But on the western side of
the building, as we moved

around to the- to the
western side

of the hospital, my guys
encountered the bulk of- of

the fighters and we found
people from, you know,

Morocco, Syrians, Lebanese,
there was, you know, people

from several different
countries that we- we found

inside the hospital that
would obviously supported

the fact that foreign
fighters were coming in

there for the- for
the big fight.

(indistinct conversations)

LT. COL. KELLEY: They
had a- a news crew

embedded with
them and this-

this was obviously a
very important story.

The fascinating thing to us
was, and if you look at the

helmet cam video, you can
see the television monitors

on the hospital.

These guys just assaulted
the hospital and they're

still clearing it, and on
the television monitors you

can see Al Jazeera showing
them clearing the hospital

because the CBS news
reporter is beaming his

footage back and before he
even gets on the air with a

report of the assault on
Fallujah has finally begun,

Al Jazeera grabs his
footage off the satellite

pipe that it rides on,
they slap their take on the

story, on what's happening,
even though they have no

one there reporting,
they grab the footage and

they're- they
are reporting it

before CBS even
breaks the story.

(soldiers shouting)
(gunfire)

(indistinct chatter)
(gunfire)

CPL. SLAWATYCKI: I believe
it was seven battalions

pushed in, into the city,
into the northern edge of

the city, every one of them
directly online at the same

exact time, from
east to west.

And as everybody pushed
down, when one got ahead of

another, they stopped,
waited, held security, and

waited for the next one
to get online, because as

you're jumping from house
to house, you have to stay

together, or else
insurgents will get through

and get behind you.

And once that happens,

everything is known
to go to hell.

SOLDIERS: Breach!
(gunfire)

CPL. SLAWATYCKI: For us,
it was clear the building,

and then worry about
the next one.

Clear the building, and the
next one, and the next one,

and then hundreds and
thousands of 'em after,

and the millions of rooms

that you end up
walking into.

SOLDIERS: Hey someone
get behind me!

(gunfire)

SOLDIER: Just found
a huge cache...

It's like 50 120-rounds,
various rockets, other

mortars, and
mortar systems.

(distant gunfire)

CPL. BENDER: The original
thoughts of Fallujah was

that it was a safe hold
for insurgents,

and a real hornet's
nest in that sense.

But also, it was a- it
was a munitions dump.

They had an insane amount
of weapons and-

explosives there.

They were using it as a
storage point, because

they knew Americans
couldn't touch it before-

before the invasion of
Fallujah, so they were

basically reporting there,
filling their trunks up

with mines and IEDs, going
to outer-lying cities,

planting them, and coming
back into the city and

having a good night's
rest, you know?

And so we were running-
running across these,

and as we cleared houses,
even- even though we didn't

run to- run into
insurgents in every house,

we almost-

I'd say every fifth house
had weapons in it.

(distant gunfire)

(door thunks)

SOLDIER: Clear.

LANCE CPL. PANCAMO:
We were clearing

so many houses
a day, I mean,

we were clearing I would
say up in the double

digits at least,
houses a day.

It's kind of the same
process and sometimes there

are people inside and
sometimes there's not and

it just kind of wears
on your mind and body.

(banging and shouting)

(explosions)

(banging and shouting)

CPL. SLAWATYCKI: We
pushed the contact,

as a squad, and I- I
believe as a platoon,

and that was our-
our objective was

push the contact,
keep on moving,

keep 'em on their toes.

(footsteps)

SOLDIER: Pancamo!

Next time you go into
a house by yourself

I'm gonna *******
knock you out...

Always make sure somebody's
behind you, all right?

(door crashes)

LANCE CPL. PANCAMO: My
squad we were kind of

branded with
the whole, like,

being a "cowboy,"
you know whatever,

or the name or
whatever, because

we were- we were
kind of reckless.

I wouldn't- I wouldn't
say reckless,

we were kind of,

yeah, we would- I guess
I would say reckless.

We were kind of bold.

You know, we were
kind of bold with the

everything that we did.

(footsteps)

CPL. BENDER:
Pancamo and I

are looking over
some paperwork

in one of these rooms,
and I'm kind of-

he's right in front of me,
and we're- we're close,

you know, we're kind
of face to face

looking over this stuff
and trying to read,

and out of the
corner of my eye,

I basically see an
Iraqi man, you know,

we called it a man
dress, but the-

the average attire for an
Iraqi guy is basically

a floor-length
dress shirt, you know?

And he's got the- the
rag around the top-

around the top of head or
whatever, and he comes in

and just- instinctively,
you know, you've been in

this environment and this
mindset for so long that

that means danger;
that means death

in a lot of circumstances.

And I'm- you know, like
I said, it was out of the

corner of my eye, and I
didn't really want to alert

him to the fact that I knew
he was there, but I just

draw fast, I get my 9
mil right here, this-

and I pull, aim it,

and I'm half squeezing
this trigger,

I mean, I am- in my
mind, he's already dead.

And it's Boloff, and he had
thrown this Iraqi attire

on, thinking it was funny.

And it really
was not funny,

especially when
you're inside the-

the city of Fallujah,
so he got body slammed

for that one and, I
don't know, he just

wasn't a very deep
thinker, I guess.

(tank humming)
(gunfire)

MAST. SGT. CASTILLO: On the
other side of the courtyard

they had no eyes, no vis;

I did 'cause I
was sitting so high,

so what I would do is
I'd just lean over my

machine gun, look over
the wall, and if I saw

something I'd shoot at it
prior to them entering the

building or going
into that courtyard.

And what was happening was
the platoon commander or

the platoon sergeant was
guiding me on the building

they wanted to hit using
the grunt phone, a- a box,

a- a radio mic

that we have on the- on
the back of the tank

that they used to talk to
the tank commander on the

inside of the tank.

So they would tell me on
the radio, on the hook,

"Hey, we want to take
this building here

on the right side."

And I'd go ahead
and prep it for 'em.

I'd- I'd launch a couple of
main gun rounds in there

(explosion)

and then they'd storm in.

(soldiers shouting)
(gunfire)

CPL. BENDER: First
day's kind of a blur.

I mean, we ran- you're
just on pure adrenaline,

waitin' for that house.

You know, every house is
a potential death trap.

And you know, you always
take a deep sigh after the

door you- you take

is cleared, and- and
truthfully, I didn't run

that much video
on the first day.

I was all about being on
the trigger, you know.

(tank humming)

MAST. SGT. CASTILLO:
Unfortunately,

when you're in- in battle

and every tanker
knows this

the- the tank pretty
much becomes

the Port a Potty
sometimes, and you have to

do your business
inside the tank.

And it- it's an awful smell
when men haven't showered

in days or weeks sometimes,
and you know, you just-

the body odor, the smell
of the- the- the FRH

and the hydraulic
fluids and the diesel

and the oils and
your clothes.

And all these
things, it just-

it reeks really
bad sometimes.

So it's just something you
get used to, and you just

do what you gotta do and
toss it in a black bag out

of the hatch.
(laughs)

(distant gunfire)

SOLDIER: Hey,
Fitz! Let's go.

SOLDIER: Let's go Fitz!

SOLDIER: Let's go, let's
go, let's go, c'mon, c'mon.

CPL. BENDER: I guess
towards the end of

the day we ended up,

in a position a lot of
guys, or some guys refer to

as the Alamo.

It was a giant schoolhouse,
kind of a center point,

in- in the Jolan district
for our push, anyway.

(footsteps)

CPL. PIANO: I believe
3rd platoon was off

to one of our flanks

and they were getting
some serious contact.

And we had- my platoon
was in the schoolhouse,

the Alamo, and we were just
getting mortared, RPGs,

small-arms fire
from everywhere.

SOLDIER: Did you get an ID

on that shooter
from the mosque?

(gunfire)

(gunfire)
(explosion)

SOLDIER: You blew
that bitch in half!

CPL. SLAWATYCKI: They
pretty much came out of the

woodwork like rats, I mean,
we had mortars coming in,

being shot at on a
consistent basis;

what we did is, initially, to
set up a consolidation point,

and keep pushing,

we set ourselves up
in a- in a building,

and- not so much trapped
ourselves,

but, we were a target,

and for that day and night,

there was a lot of
fightin' going on.

(gunfire)

CPL. BENDER: To
sum it up, it was-

we were in one
position way too long,

and more Marines kept
showing up, and we --

it was the only
secure building

in that area of the city,
but at the same time,

the insurgents had known
we'd been there for hours,

and I think higher ups will
even tell you that it was-

it was a nerve-testing
time, you know?

I heard lieutenants
screaming at each other and

dropping the F-bomb
every other word.

I mean, they were- they
did not want to be there.

They really wanted to move,
but we couldn't because we

had a platoon behind us,
and we had to stay online.

(gunfire)

CPL. SLAWATYCKI:
I can't see,

I don't have any windows.

CPL. SLAWATYCKI: I
looked at it more like,

you know, you just gotta
do what you gotta do

to help your friends,

you know, to help
your fellow Marines.

You know, I wasn't worried
about, you know, getting

shot or getting wounded,
or anything like that, or

having something drastic
happen to me, I was-

I was worried about the
guys to my left and right.

(distant gunfire)

CPL. BENDER: That's kind
of how things were.

There's intense moments,
and then there's hanging

out, you know, and so for
that point, I'm trying to

switch tapes around and get
my camera ready to roll for

what's coming next, trying
to take advantage of the

time that we had, and- and
I get my camera slapped-

slapped back together,

I'm ready to roll,
and Piano now is-

he's ducking and he's-

ducking and
dodging bullets,

and it's- it's
kinda weird, because most

of the other Marines
were drinking water,

and kind of on standby.

We're waiting for word
from staff sergeant.

(gunshots)

(indistinct chatter)
(gunshots)

CPL. SLAWATYCKI: One
insurgent popped up

and we fired,

myself and Corporal Piano
fired shots at him,

and at this point we had
only saw him very briefly,

we weren't sure, and I
actually asked, I believe I

asked Lance
Corporal Pancamo,

I'm like, "Did I get him?"

Yeah, I wasn't exactly sure
at this- at that point,

so, he dropped down, and
the next thing I remember

seeing was a
glint of a rifle,

and shots were fired.

CPL. BENDER: 'Brrrrrrrat,'
like an AK buzz, you know?

And he just- I can
remember it, you know,

it was like a freeze frame
in my mind, and you see-

his Kevlar is like this,
and you see, 'thonk!'

and I'm behind him, and I
just see this dust 'ptoo!'

like puff out of his
Kevlar, and you just get

this sick feeling in
your stomach, you know?

He- his rifle- he takes it
like this, and- you know,

you're never supposed
to drop your rifle,

and even when he gets
thumped in the head,

and Piano like, takes his
rifle and sets it down

and like- kind of like
lays it on the ground

as he's falling.

CPL. SLAWATYCKI:
I stood up

and started firing two
or three grenades,

and also shots in the
area, second platoon

can confirm that they had
found the insurgents,

and Corporal Piano
was on the ground.

CPL. BENDER: Thump
right through there,

the round- the
round went in

and came out the
back of the Kevlar.

So he should have
been a goner.

You know, the docs
were there with us,

and everybody's- we thought
he was dead, you know?

We figured we'd pull off
his Kevlar and there'd be a

mess of brains in there,
and he'd be done, you know?

And he walked out of there.

And you know, Tycki will
tell you he kept repeating

things like, "Tycki, you
got the squad," you know,

he's- he's trying to-
he knows he's gone,

he knows he's out of the
fight, but he wants-

he wants us to
be successful.

(gunfire)

CPL. PIANO: What
really got to me

when I got to the
train station,

what I was very upset
with and like,

I still regret it
to this day was-

I don't know about other
wounded Marines but,

if you get wounded you
feel as if you failed.

You are trained
not to get wounded.

It's just a- a failure,
you feel like a failure.

I feel I let my
Marines down.

CPL. SLAWATYCKI:
Immediately

I took over the squad,
became squad leader,

made Lance Corporal
Pancamo my first team leader,

and right after that we
had left the schoolhouse,

and began to
push south again,

as if nothing happened.

But we- it was-
the mindset changed.

He was the first one in
our squad to get seriously

wounded, and the mindset
changed immediately.

And from then on out,

I'll have to say, honestly,
in my personal opinion,

it wasn't just- just
another battle

that you happen to be
in that you train for,

it definitely became a
personal situation,

for myself, because that
was bad day for the whole

company and the battalion,

we lost a lot of
guys that day.

(heavy gunfire)

(soldiers talking)

(heavy gunfire)

(soldiers talking)
(heavy gunfire)

LT. COL. BUHL: The further
south we advanced,

the more determined
the resistance got.

And particularly Queens,
the very southernmost

neighborhood in that city,
fanatical resistance.

And one might say well it's
natural, you're pushing

them against what, in
this case really was

the wall behind them.

Because we had the
entire city cordoned

and there was nowhere
for them to go.

LT. GEN. NATONSKI:
We had instances

where the enemy would wave

a white flag and then shoot
American forces nearby.

We saw insurgents playing
dead and then picking up

rifles and firing
on our forces.

They were using drugs.

Many had been high on
amphetamines and other

types of narcotics.

You could shoot em',

and they would
continue to attack.

(crickets chirping)

CPL. BENDER: We had
a patrol on foot

and we're coming
through these streets,

it's really eerie
because, you know,

minutes ago we were
shooting at guys in these

buildings that we're
walking right beside now,

and it's dark, and like I
said, night vision is tough

to deal with in
that scenario.

And we hear this rustling,
and somebody points their

taclight over, and you
see this insurgent that had

been shot crossing the
street, and then a cat

pounced on top of him,

pulling tendons
out of his leg.

You know, this is- this
guy got shot maybe six

hours ago, and these
feral cats and dogs,

it's a heyday for them.

I mean, they're
already setting in.

Once the sun goes down,
the smorgasbord starts.

♪

LT. COL. BUHL: We found a
number of torture chambers

replete with all the
things you'd expect,

bloody knives,

saws, hooks, fingernails,
scratches into the cement.

We- we found the room that
the British citizen who had

been beheaded,

was- was detained
inside, was tortured in.

And- and the picture had
his face and his hands on

the bars and we had the
very same room with the

exact bars, with the same
markings on it, etc.

(whirring sound)

MAST. SGT. CASTILLO: The
smell was horrendous.

I just- the smell of
death in the air,

and when you- when you
don't- when you've never

experienced something
like that, it's something

that'll never leave your
mind because it's just-

the destruction is-
is just horrible.

The smell is horrible.

It's just- it's an
experience that you have to

live to really truly
understand and get a

feeling of.

♪

LT. COL. BUHL:
One of our

young Marines
noticed fresh feces

at an outhouse outside the-
this particular structure

that later became known
as the "Hell House" and

reported it on his
platoon radio,

alerted people that he
was investigating it.

A fire- reinforced fire
team, part of a squad,

entered the house and
immediately encountered

enemy inside.

♪

1ST LT. GRAPES: What
they didn't know

was, besides the man
who was standing

in that living room
shooting at them directly,

and besides the man
that was in the

first room that they
had already killed,

there was two fighters who
were in an elevated position

in that living room,
which is kind of-

just like in the States,

right in the middle
of the house,

so all the other
rooms are kind of

adjoining off of this
one central location.

♪

LT. COL. BUHL: This
was pre- precisely

one of these
situations where,

in this case the insurgents
remained very quiet,

hidden, and didn't
advertise their position

and- and in fact that's
what we saw also as we

advanced south was that
the insurgents were less

willing to- to engage us
as we approached, but would

wait until we physically
entered the homes to fight

as close as
possible to negate

our combined
arms advantages.

♪

1ST LT. GRAPES:
So I arrived

about twenty minutes-
fifteen minutes

after this fight had
begun, and it was at-

I guess I would call it
a bit of a stalemate.

And the reason I say a
stalemate is because:

wounded Marine inside,
Staff Sergeant Chandler

organizes a rescue party.

They run in the room,

try and shoot
everything that they-

that moves so they
can pull this Marine out.

Soon as they run in,
what did the enemy do?

They're smart, they throw
grenades in the room.

As they walk in the
room, they blow up,

and now I've got two
more Marines wounded.

The other two wounded
Marines fall into the

kitchen, and they're
trapped in this kitchen.

So now I've got four
Marines trapped

in the house,

because no one can
go in this living room

without getting blown up.

Another rescue party goes
in, led by a Corporal,

Corporal Wolf goes
in with a Sergeant

and they try and go in,

Corporal Woof- Wolf gets
shot in his flak jacket,

falls on the floor,
Sergeant Byron Norwood

gets shot in the head,
killed, instantly.

♪

LT. COL. BUHL: Then
First Sergeant

Brad Kasal realizes that

there are men in-
in extremis hurt.

He can hear the screams.

He enters the house.

He grabs Marines nearby,
takes them in with him,

begins to develop the
situation inside the house

and in the process of
maneuvering to an empty

room engages and kills a
man at close quarters and

is wounded in the process
by a enemy above him.

And in fact he and his
partner, his- his buddy

Lance Corporal Nicolls,

both are stitched
down their

legs with AK-47 fire.

1ST LT. GRAPES: These guys
are in a very good position,

the- the enemy.

There was very- not a very
easy way to get to them,

and at the same time,
all of the- these rooms-

this- this structure's
very solid.

You know, the- the
construction in Iraq is

very sturdy-

steel rebar,
reinforced concrete,

and sometimes
triple-layer brick.

You couldn't shoot a
missile through some of

these walls.

And so we couldn't bring
any heavy weapons to bear,

couldn't bring any grenades
to bear, because we had too

many of our own men
wounded on the inside.

So basically all we could
use was our hands

and our guns.

So another Marine, PFC
Boswood and myself,

started taking
the sledgehammer

to the steel grate
of this window.

♪

LT. COL. BUHL: So
the lieutenant

goes in without their

protective vests and plates
on etc., through the bars

of a window that they
managed to pull aside.

This all in extremis.

There's firing going on,
there are grenades being

thrown in the house,
there's groups of Marines

separated and
trapped by this very

effective defense scheme.

And Grapes goes in with
Boswood, they identify the

threat above them, they
work out a situ- a scenario

to- to suppress the
enemy above them.

♪

1ST LT. GRAPES: We
got four or five guns

pointed up at
these positions,

and just like
you'd imagine,

with a countdown,
"Okay, you ready?"

"I'm not sure." (laughs)

You know, "Okay,
we're gonna go on three,"

you know, "Make sure you
don't run in front of our

guns, because we're
gonna be shooting,"

and- and the old,
"Ready, set, go!"

And then we start unloading
on these guys upstairs,

and these two
selfless Marines,

run across this kill zone,

not once, not twice,
but four times

to pull Marines
out of there.

And we had some Marines in
some pretty bad situations;

Lance Corporal Nic- or PFC
Nicoll was bleeding really

bad from his leg; First
Sergeant Kasal was carried

out by those two Marines
who weren't carrying any

weapons, but still holding
his weapon, ready to fight.

And they were in bad shape.

So we had to get them out
of there as quickly as

possible, but we still
had these two guys

in the- in the house.

And they weren't going
anywhere, and we weren't

going anywhere until
the job was done.

LT. COL. BUHL: They
managed to get everybody

out of the house
alive and Byron,

they managed to
get Sergeant Norwood

out of the house

and then they
drop the house.

1ST LT. GRAPES: So we
let the- the smoke clear,

and we- we take a

walk over to make sure that
there's- there's nothing

left to be done, and as
we approach, we see two of

these guys hanging out
of the- the rubble,

from their waist up, and we
assume that they're dead.

I mean, we just
think that they

logically would be dead.

And I'll never forget this

French photographer,
he says,

"Hey, one of these
guys is moving."

And he and I and John got
up close and look at the

guy, and as we got within
three, four feet of him,

he has his arm kind of, you
know, held to his chest

like this, flings a grenade
at us with his last breaths

of life, right at
our feet- we turned,

all seven of us,

you know, run for- for
cover, grenade blows up

behind us, we
turn around and-

and you know, fired
on- on both of them.

♪

And then we went up
and finished them off

♪

and went back to-
to our base.

♪

LT. COL. BUHL: They're
asking after their buddies.

That's all they're asking.

"How is...

How is Kasal?"

"How's Nicoll doing?"

That's all they ever asked.

"Do I have to leave?

Do I have to be medivac'd?"

"You're going to
be okay, and yes,

"doc says you've got to go.

"We'll see you.

We'll see you, you know,
as soon as you get better."

You always want to reassure
these men that they've done

their duty and... oh
gosh I thought I-

I didn't think I'd
have a problem here.

You always want to reassure
them and you want to try to

do that before they get
their medication so they

remember it because that
memory is seared

into their-
into their soul.

They- they never forget it.

None of us do.

♪

1ST LT. GRAPES: In
a rifle platoon,

to lose almost all of your

leadership in one battle,
that just doesn't happen.

I mean, we were almost
depleted in strength by a

third in an hour and a half
span, and you know, we had

all been working together
for years, and you know,

we're just sitting back
there at our base,

like I said,
decompressing and-

and just reflecting,
saying,

"I can't believe that we
were just involved in that.

I can't believe I'm still
alive, involved in that."

And I think one of the
Marines just said,

"Yeah, that was hell."

And they just
started calling it

the "Hell House."

And it was, so the
name just stuck.

♪

CPL. PIANO: I remember saying
something to Captain Clark

at one point, when he was a
captain then, major now,

he said something
about them.

Because one of my friends
just got killed and I said

something to him and he was
like, that's the hardest

thing about fighting this
enemy is they're not afraid

to die, which was
very, very true.

If they are not
afraid to die then,

how do you fight 'em?

1ST LT. GRAPES: What our
enemies respect over there

is not candy and
soccer balls;

they respect the hammer,

and- and we gave it
to 'em in Fallujah.

And- and that's why they
haven't replicated that

again in the country.

Certainly there's fighting
going on throughout Iraq;

certainly there are
ambushes and IEDs and

things like that going on
everywhere, but that's the

reason why soldiers and
Marines are so frustrated,

because it's not the
combat they trained for,

there's no honor in it.

There's no pride in
it with your enemy.

You don't respect them.

In Fallujah, I can
honestly say, well,

certainly we don't agree
with their political ideo-

ideology or their
religious ideology.

We respected the fact
that they stood there

and faced us
and fought us.

(gunfire)
(explosions)

CPL. SLAWATYCKI:
We ended up

consolidating the platoon

and got in a- a
patrol formation,

and we had these personal
radios, the PRRs,

and I believe it
was Corporal Bryan

from- from third squad
comes over the radio

and starts singing
Mickey Mouse.

And if you've ever seen the
movie "Full Metal Jacket,"

when they're in Hué City
at the very end, they all-

moving with- through
the buildings at night

singing Mickey Mouse.

♪ M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E ♪

♪ Mickey Mouse! ♪
♪ Mickey Mouse! ♪

♪ Forever let us hold
our banner high ♪

♪ High! High! High! ♪

♪ Boys and girls
from far and near ♪

♪ You're welcome
as can be ♪

♪ M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E ♪

CPL. SLAWATYCKI: It was
just like one of them

moments in life that I'll
always look back on,

like, you know, I-
I guess you could-

you could say war is
hell, and you know,

bad things happen and
stuff like that.

I mean, we lost a lot of
friends, a lot of people

got wounded, but at that
moment n- nothing else

mattered because you were-

you were with friends
that you have for life,

and you're walking
through a place

that you just did
something that, you know,

will be everywhere,
will- will live on,

and it'll always
be remembered,

and you can laugh and
joke at the same time.

♪

WEST: I don't think that we
should call it a victory.

And because the whole
episode if you look at the

six months, if anything
gave solace to the enemy in

saying, "Well, the Americans
don't have it all together.

They don't finish a fight."

And even when we finished
the second fight in

Fallujah, the American high
command was so concerned

with the physical damage
done that there was no

pursuit of the enemy and
the enemy was allowed to

scatter to other towns.

LT. COL. BUHL: We bought
some time after Fallujah 2.

If- if- you know, and you're-
you're told never to speculate,

"Stay in your lane
Lieutenant Colonel Buhl."

But if I were to speculate,
this was our moment,

this would have been a
moment for us to surge.

At this moment in time we
had the insurgency in the

Al Anbar Province flat on-

that we had them
on their back.

We truly did.

♪

(soldier speaking
indistinctly on intercom)

LT. GEN. METZ: The enemy
is always gonna go,

like most things
do in nature

to where there's the
least resistance.

As an example, I don't
think the enemy's going to

go try to challenge us in
the deep blue sea or the

light blue sky.

I mean our wonderful Naval
forces and Air forces will

prohibit any
enemy from- from

re-entering those domains.

He's going to go to jungles
and to mountains and to

urban environments where
it's very, very hard.

The enemy will make it
a- a boots on the ground

intensive fight and
we gotta expect it.

He's not gonna try to fight
us where we're dominant.

He's gonna fight us
where we're weak.

♪

(tank rumbles)
♪

LT. COL. MCCOY: Despite all
the technology that we had,

it came down to men going
to the sound of guns,

in that cauldron where-
where human wills clash,

where the metal
meets the meat.

And those with the- the
best training win.

At the end of the day,

all the metal and guns
in the world don't-

aren't worth, you know,
three squads of-

of Marines that are willing
to do the work with rifle,

bayonet and grenade.

♪

MAST. SGT. ERICKSON:
Foreign policy,

I don't make it,

I just deliver the
last 600 meters of it.

♪

SOLDIER: We got a

red platoon directly
in front of us, sir.

Can't see anything really.

But we haven't seen
anything for a while.

We've got two people
on the bridge.

ANNOUNCER: This program
is available with

PBS Passport and on
Amazon Prime Video.

SOLDIER 2: Okay, as soon as
this last big rig goes

we're gonna start
backing you guys up

and getting out of the
way (indistinct) over.

SOLDIER: Roger that.