When he entered a bedroom, the wounded insurgent followed, forcing Bellavia to shoot him. A second insurgent fired at him, and Bellavia wounded him in the shoulder. Bellavia promptly shot him and charged into the house. During a lull in the fire, Bellavia approached the house again and observed an insurgent loading a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. While the Americans took fire from various vantage points inside the house, Bellavia called in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to shell the houses. 'A light switch went off.'Īccording to his Silver Star citation, Bellavia, armed with an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon gun, entered the room where the insurgents were holed up and sprayed it with gunfire, forcing the enemy to take cover and allowing the squad to move into the street. I wanted to be that leader that I promised I would be,' he said. Bellavia seethed when he heard the anguished screams of his fellow Soldiers as they were wounded. The insurgents were entrenched in a makeshift pillbox under a set of stairs. 'They just opened up on us with belt-fed machine guns,' Bellavia said. The pair of hard-nosed contingents clashed immediately when the door of that 10th house opened. By the time they arrived on the city's outskirts, the 1st ID had been in Iraq for 10 months and had been involved in every major battle in the war up to that point. But Bellavia's unit was battle-hardened, too. They had interpreters, combat cameramen and were well-trained.

The insurgents holding Fallujah were formidable. official told ABC News that catching Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was said to be operating in the city, was 'the highest priority.' The operation ended in late April with the formation of the Fallujah Brigade, a unit composed of Iraqis, which was charged with keeping insurgents out of the city. Marine forces launched Operation Vigilant Resolve to take the city back from insurgents. The impetus for the battle began in March when four American private military contractors from Blackwater USA were ambushed and killed in Fallujah.

Marine Corps and was the bloodiest battle of the Iraq war. 7, 2004, and ended more than six weeks later on Dec. Also known as Operation Phantom Fury, the operation was a joint effort by American, Iraqi and British forces to drive out the Iraqi insurgency in the city. 'I have had better birthdays, for sure,' Bellavia told the Military Channel in 2009.īellavia's men were mired in the opening stages of the Second Battle of Fallujah.

Operation phantom fury gun