American Valor Quarterly Issue 6 - Spring/Summer 2009 | Page 39

A lot of the homes in Fallujah were solid concrete, so they really
became fortified bunkers for the enemy fighters who decided that
the best way to fight was not to take us on in the streets, but to
hole up inside of a house, waiting to ambush us. I don’t know what
was worse, knowing that there was someone inside of a room or
not knowing what we would find behind a door. Either way, we
had to go house to house and room to room to clear these guys,
and they always had their weapons trained on the doors. They
waited for us to enter a house or room, and they would open up.
They were determined, and willing to die for their cause. If we
killed ten of them and they were able to kill just one of us, it was
worth it to them.
We were surprised to find that in just about every house where we
did have contact or find insurgents, we would also find needles.
The docs pointed out that there were also small vials that contained
a type of drug that would cause an adrenaline rush. Sometimes
we would have to empty a magazine into a guy just to knock him
down, they were so fired up from the drugs. It was scary – you
could shoot a guy and he would just keep coming at you, so you
Pictured above is Marine Captain Doug Zembiec, commanding officer had to make your shots count. This all made it clear to us that we
of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines gives orders to his men
were fighting fanatics who would do anything to kill us.
Operation Phantom Fury - the Second Battle of Fallujah - was preceded earlier 2004 by the First Battle of Fallujah, dubbed Operation
Vigilant Resolve. The assault on the city was undertaken following the
murder of four American contractors by terrorists in Fallujah. Despite
nearly taking the city in quick fashion, the attack was called off before
it could be concluded in the hope a negotiated settlement could be
agreed upon.

prior to heading out on patrol during First Fallujah. They would experience intense fighting in the city, with Zembiec earning the nickname The Second Battle of Fallujah began on November 8, and our
“The Lion of Fallujah” as well as the Silver Star for his heroic actions forces had pressed to the southern end of the city in a little over a
in battle.
Zembiec returned for a fourth tour in Iraq in 2007. He was killed by
enemy fire on May 11, 2007, leading a raid by Iraqi soldiers he helped

As we pushed underneath the bridge into the city of Fallujah to our
first staging area, there was an almost eerie kind of silence. There
was nobody around in those first few blocks. Once we moved a
few blocks in, we started to see dead insurgents lying in the streets.
The stench of death was all around us, though it was something
we learned to block out until we just got used to it.

week. From there, we turned back and began cleaning out pockets
of resistance, house by house over the next month. While fighting
continued until December 23, my part in the battle would end on
December 12, a day that I will never forget.
That morning we started moving from the western side of the
city to the eastern side to relieve another unit in that area. Our
battalion commander, Lt. Colonel Pat Malay, wanted us to conduct
a sweep of the homes in the area, since he knew that we were quite
good at it by this point and might find some insurgents that the
others had missed.

USMC photo

The city was full of wild cats and dogs running around. At first
they were ٕ