Remembering Fallujah Part 4: The Aftermath of Victory

Chaplain Ric Brown knew when he first enlisted that he’d probably go to war. He didn’t realize he’d be in the most savage urban battle U.S. forces had seen in a generation.

Soldiers bow their heads in respect during the opening prayer of the dedication ceremony of the MWR movie theater at forward operating base Warhorse in Ba Qubah, Iraq. The Faulkenburg Theater was named after CSM Steven Falkenburg, 2nd Bn., 2nd Inf Reg., 1st Inf Div., who was killed in action during the re-taking of Fallujah, Iraq, Nov 9 2004. (US Army Photo by SGT Matthew Acosta)

In December 2004, the American-led task force that smothered the city of Fallujah to retake it from insurgents had mostly accomplished its mission. Operation Phantom Fury had begun by the end of the first week of November. Within a month the Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi troops had secured every corner of the city that its previous masters had described as the “cemetery for Americans.”

Brown was there from the beginning.

Ten years later, the toll is both easier and more difficult to measure.

Launched on November 7, Operation Phantom Fury achieved its objectives rather quickly. The Regimental Combat Teams swept through the city and exterminated most of the remaining insurgents within a week. By November 14, the Marines-led task force occupied Fallujah.

By then, as Marines conducted final clearing operations in the eastern part of the city, a message had been painted in black on the infamous green trestle bridge:

This is for the Americans of Blackwater murdered here in 2004. Semper Fidelis 3/5 Dark Horse