Directions

• As you read, circle or underline the names of people, organizations and important facts.
• Use your own words to answer the questions in complete sentences.

Thursday's Commentary - November 6, 2008

Remember Heroes of Fallujah

NOTE:  The
following article is long – almost 9 pages - but well worth reading. 
We urge you to make time to print and read the article in its entirety
to gain an appreciation for the heroism of the brave soldiers of our
generation.

This article was first posted here for Veterans Day 2006.  We think it is so important for every American to know the stories of these American heroes that we post it here again for Veterans Day 2008.  Share it with your family and friends.  Honor our veterans!

(by James C. Roberts, HumanEvents.com) – November 7 marks the [fourth] anniversary of Operation Phantom Fury,
the battle to liberate the Iraqi city of Fallujah. When the history of
Operation Iraqi Freedom is written, this effort to liberate the
insurgent stronghold and the headquarters of infamous butcher Al
Zarqawi, the former head of al Qaeda in Iraq, will probably be seen as
the iconic battle of the war.

Fallujah
had become a magnet for foreign jihadists and there were several
thousand in the city who had come to make martyrs of themselves, to die
while killing as many Americans as possible.

Cocaine Jihadists

The
jihadists were fearless, vicious fighters, many of them high on drugs
such as cocaine and liquid adrenaline that made them impervious to
pain. Most of the civilian population of Fallujah had abandoned the
city in advance of the attacks, leaving it to the jihadists.

There
were 39,000 buildings and 400,000 rooms in Fallujah, and the grim task
of the American Marines and soldiers was to root out and kill the
jihadists block by block, house by house, room by room, advancing
through streets booby-trapped with mines and improvised explosive
devices (IEDs)

The
assignment to defeat the jihadists was given to two armored battalions
and four infantry battalions of Marines and Army under the command of
Maj. Gen. James Mattis, USMC.

The
battle plan called for a cordon to be established around the city to
prevent the jihadists from escaping. The two armored battalions were
then to advance North to South down the city’s two major streets, while
the four infantry battalions systematically cleared the buildings,
driving the insurgents into a kill zone in the Southern end of the city.

The
firestorm ignited by John Kerry’s denigrating remark about our troops
in Iraq has had the positive effect of putting the spotlight on those
troops. It’s about time. Amid the daily reports of sectarian violence
and Iraqi and American casualty counts, the sacrifice and achievements
and dedication of our troops has largely been ignored.

The
condescending implication of Kerry’s statement – that our troops are
poor and uneducated – is solidly refuted by the facts. Studies show
that the education level of our military personnel is higher than the
average of their civilian peers and the same is true of their financial
background. Many enlisted personnel are taking college courses as they
serve in uniform and almost all officers have college degrees – many of
then have advanced degrees.

But
more important is the question of character. Despite the dangerous and
alien environment in which our troops operate in Afghanistan and Iraq,
they have preformed with great resolve and courage. They are as fine a
fighting force as any fielded in the history of our country. Morale
remains high as do re-enlistment rates. And they don’t do it for the
money. They do it for their country.

One
hundred fifty-one U.S. troops were killed and more than 1,000 were
injured in the two weeks of almost non-stop fighting to take Fallujah.
As was the case in many of the storied battles in American history,
courage, self sacrifice and heroism were all commonplace in the Battle
of Fallujah. This account tells the stories of only a few of the many
heroes of Operation Phantom Fury.

Staff Sgt. James Matteson, U.S. Army
A
scout with the 1st Army Division, the famous “Big Red One,” Staff
Sgt. James Matteson was in the vanguard of the drive to capture
Fallujah.

On
Nov. 11, 2004, under the cover of darkness, three of Matteson’s fellow
scouts attacked an insurgent-held structure at a site called Objective
Lion.� Upon entering the building, all three scouts were hit by
gunfire. Matteson immediately threw a smoke grenade to provide
concealment as he directed the evacuation of the scouts for medical
treatment.

Matteson
then supplied suppression fire allowing his men to launch a
counter-attack on the building. The attack collapsed the structure,
killing all of the insurgents inside.

The
next morning Matteson was riding atop his MRK-19 grenade launcher,
leading his task force, when insurgents ambushed the unit. Matteson
jumped from his vehicle and again provided suppression fire, allowing
the Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks to take positions and
engage the enemy.

From his exposed position, Matteson continued firing his machine gun until an insurgent rocket cut him down.

Many of his fellow soldiers who had witnessed the action spoke movingly about Matteson’s courage under fire.

For his valor demonstrated in battle, Matteson was posthumously awarded the Silver Star.

In
Matteson’s home town of Jamestown, N.Y., his father commissioned a
memorial statue honoring the heroism of his son and other fallen heroes
in the War on Terror.

Navy Corpsman Joe Dan ‘Doc’ Worley
While
riding on patrol with men of the 1st Marine regiment, Navy Corpsman Joe
Dan “Doc” Worley heard an explosion nearby. An enemy IED had blown up a
Humvee, killing a Marine and his Iraqi interpreter.

Worley
immediately grabbed his medical bag and ran in the direction of the
explosion. Just then a second IED exploded a few feet away, ripping off
the corpsman’s left leg just below the knee.

Although in excruciating pain, Worley applied a tourniquet above the knee and hobbled off to help the injured Marines nearby.

In
mind-numbing pain and out in the open, Worley drew enemy fire with five
7.62MM rounds ripping into his right leg. Still, the badly wounded
corpsman refused to stop. Reaching the other wounded Marines, Worley
gave instructions for treating the wounded until the Marines killed the
attacking insurgents and evacuated the wounded, including Worley.

Following
19 months of surgeries and rehabilitation at Bethesda and Walter Reed
hospitals in Washington, Worley retired from the Navy. He is a strong
supporter of the U.S. effort to liberate Iraq and Afghanistan and is an
active member of Vets for Freedom, an organization that supports the
U.S. mission in those two countries.

Marine Sgt. Jarrett A. Kraft
Although
major combat operations ended in Fallujah on November 13, sporadic
fighting continued in and around the city. On Dec. 23, 2004, Marine
Sgt. Jarrett A. Kraft was involved in a firefight in which his
courageous action gained him the Navy Cross, the military’s second
highest award for valor. The Navy Cross citation reads in part:

-As
numerically superior insurgent forces attacked Sgt. Kraft and the
Marines in Al Fallujah, Iraq, he quickly organized and fearlessly led
three assault forces on three separate attacks to repel the insurgents
and ensure the successful advance of the battalion. With complete
disregard for his own life, he placed himself between intense enemy
fire and the men during each attack, providing suppressive fire and
leadership to sustain the fight and eliminate the enemy. Although
grenades thrown by the insurgents rendered him momentarily unconscious
during one assault, this did not dampen his spirit or determination.
Undeterred, Sgt. Kraft continued to lead from the front, despite being
wounded himself. On two more occasions, he was knocked down stairwells
by enemy grenade blasts and finally, while emplacing a sniper in a
critical location, Sgt. Kraft was knocked down by the blast from a
friendly M1A1 tank main gun. He demonstrated courageous leadership with
a complete disregard for his own safety during this desperate two-hour
battle, as he personally braved multiple enemy small-arms kill zones to
render assistance and guidance to his Marines. By his outstanding
display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy
enemy fire and utmost devotion to duty, Sgt. Kraft reflected great
credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine
Corps and the United States Naval Service.

Marine Corp. Timothy Connors
Massachusetts
native Timothy Connors comes from a family with a long military
tradition. Both grandfathers served in the Marine Corps, one in Korea
and one in World War II where he saw the flag-raising on Iwo Jima
close-up. An uncle served in Vietnam and a cousin is in the reserves.
After graduating from high school in 2001, Tim Connors decided to
follow suit and he has done his family’s traditions proud.

In
November 2004, Connors was serving in Iraq as a squad leader with the
1st Marine Division when the division was ordered to help in the
liberation of Fallujah.

For
the next two weeks, the 21-year-old Connors was in almost constant
combat. He participated in numerous firefights against the insurgents
and was involved in 12 house fights to clear entrenched insurgents out
of buildings – a record.

In
one effort to clear a house, one of Connors’ men, Lance Corp. Travis
Desiato, plunged through the door and was instantly killed by a hail of
bullets fired by the insurgents inside. The insurgents kept firing at
Desiato’s dead body, riddling it with bullet holes.

Fearing
a repeat of the battle of Mogadishu when a Somali mob dragged the
naked, mutilated body of a dead Marine through the streets, Connors was
determined to retrieve the Marine’s body.

Connors slowly edged into the foyer of the house when a burst of AK fire whizzed by his face.

Connors
yelled for a SAW, and grabbing the weapon, sprayed the hallway and back
room with a hail of bullets. When no returning fire was forthcoming,
Connors pulled the pin on a grenade and “milked”� it, waiting until the
last second to throw it. Looking around the corner as he hurled the
grenade, Connors saw a man with a full beard and bushy black hair, his
arm cocked back to also throw a grenade. As the two grenades crossed
paths, Connors pushed the platoon mate with him, Lance Corp. Matthew
Brown, into the room on his left as both grenades went off, filling the
room with smoke and dust.

The
two Marines stumbled out into the courtyard just as Corp. Camillio
Aargon fired at an insurgent crawling on the roof, killing him
instantly.

Connors
crabbed sideways down an alley next to the house. Reaching a window, he
stuck the barrel of his rifle in the window and sprayed the room with a
burst of bullets. When insurgents inside answered with a withering
volley of AK fire, Connors grabbed a stick of C-4 explosive and hurled
it down the hallway of the house and then ran into the courtyard.

Before
the C-4 exploded, however, an insurgent stuck his rifle barrel out of a
hole in the roof and raked the wall above Connors’ head with rifle fire.

Connors
prepped another grenade and threw it into the hole, where it exploded.
A human foot wearing a sneaker flew by the Marines. The rest of the
Marines had taken positions in a house about 30 feet away, leaving
Connors and his buddy Corp. Eubaldo Lovato out in the open where they
came under fire from two directions. Scooping up grenades thrown to
them by the Marines, they pulled the pins and threw them while running
into the house under heavy cover fire.

Later
Connors, leading Corporals Lovato, Aragon, Danaghy and Longnecker,
re-entered the house where Desiato’s body lay. Initially they could not
find it, but at length noticed that it had been pulled into the back of
the house as a lure for the Marines.

Then
an insurgent firing an AK-47 ran down the corridor and into the back
room. Two Marines lobbed grenades into the room and the firing ceased.

Another
insurgent started firing Desiato’s captured SAW gun, getting off a
200-round burst at the Marines. Lovato pulled a pin on a grenade and
lobbed it in the direction of the jihadists but the grenade bounced off
the wall and rolled back, striking Connors on the foot. Connors threw
himself into an adjoining room just as the grenade exploded, knocking
the wind out of the Marine, temporarily leaving him unable to see or
breathe. He revived, however, and, with Marines providing covering
fire, he managed to get out of the house.

Connors later called up a tank, which fired rounds into the concrete house, opening a hole through which the Marines could pass.

Moving
inside, they saw an insurgent running and Donaghy dropped the man with
a round to the head. Another insurgent started to fire and Longnecker
put three rounds into his chest.

Connors,
Lovato and Aragon then sprayed the nearby room with rifle fire and,
hearing nothing, entered the room where they saw the bodies of six dead
jihadists, including the older man with the bushy hair and black beard
whom Connors had killed with the grenade.

The battle for the house had lasted five hours.

Following
the liberation of Fallujah, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi issued a statement
mourning the loss of his trusted lieutenant, Omar Hadid, who he said
had martyred himself in Fallujah. The description matched that of the
man with bushy hair and black heard Connors had killed.

Marine 1st Lt. Elliot Ackerman
As American troops moved South through Fallujah on day four, they approached Highway 10, the thoroughfare that bisects the city.

The
unit that was closest to Highway 10 was the 2nd Platoon, Alpha Company,
8th Marines commanded by 1st Lt. Elliot Ackerman. The young lieutenant
was ordered to cross the highway and take up positions inside an
abandoned building.

Ackerman
selected a building and had the artillery prep it. Unfortunately, when
the men of 2nd Platoon arrived at the building, they found it partly
caved in and unusable. The unit then moved under cover of darkness to a
building 300 meters further South, a convenience store that they dubbed
- the candy store.�

When
dawn arrived, the Marines observed large numbers of insurgents milling
around in the streets unaware of the Americans’ presence. At Ackerman’s
command, his men opened fire, killing or wounding a large number of
jihadists.

As
the morning wore on, however, the insurgents rallied, drawing in enemy
forces that soon surrounded the candy store. In the hours-long battle
that resulted, Ackerman divided his platoon into three squads, one of
which engaged the enemy from the upper floor while the other two squads
rested. A sniper wounded three of the Marines before being silenced.

At
length, Ackerman received orders to abandon the candy store and join up
with forces moving South. Unfortunately there was only one entrance to
the building on the West side, and insurgents had it well covered. Had
the Marines tried to leave through that door, they would have been cut
to shreds.

Ackerman
came up with a plan. He had explosives packed at the base of the East
wall, while the platoon gathered on the West side. The explosives were
detonated, creating a hole in the East wall. The Marines quickly
abandoned the building and began running down a side street only to
encounter a group of jihadists. A fierce firefight ensued with the
Marines’ defeating the enemy forces before joining up with the main
American assault force.

Marine Pvt. Sean Stokes and
Marine Lance Corp. Heath Kramer
On
November 17, the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment was moving
systematically through Fallujah, clearing houses. Pvt. Sean Stokes was
point man for his platoon, which meant that on this day he was the man
to kick in the door and enter the houses first.

“At
each house I said a prayer,” he says. “Please God get me out of this
one. When I come out of the house, I thank him, light up a cigarette
and move on to the next one.”

In one house that Stokes entered first, followed by his squad, to the left of the front door there was a closed metal door.

“I got the chills,” he says. “I said, “We’ll open that one last.”

Then,
“the guy behind me started firing at the door next to me. He told me he
had seen an AK-47 barrel sticking out of the door about knee-high
pointing at my back.”

The insurgent then tossed a grenade into the room and slammed the door.

“We all took some shrapnel,” Stokes says, “but nobody was badly injured.”

For Stokes’ squad it was the second time in two days that they had taken shrapnel. They were very lucky.

The
Marines then decided to leave the house and call in a tank to demolish
it. They began to file out, with Stokes last to leave, when another
grenade exploded, knocking Stokes (240 pounds with combat gear) six or
seven feet through the air.

Miraculously the young private was not badly hurt.

But
he was incredibly dizzy, unable to walk or stand up. Alone in the house
and sprawled on the floor, Stokes was nonetheless able to grab his
rifle.

As the insurgents emerged one by one from a bedroom firing their weapons, Stokes fired back, cutting down three or four of them.

Soon
though, Stokes’ ammunition clip was empty and there was no time to load
another one. In desperation, he began to prep a grenade when he heard a
tremendous crash and the outside door at his side, which had been
padlocked, caved in. Lance Corp. Heath Kramer had gotten a running
start, threw his body at the door and tore it off its frame.

A
Marine machine gunner rushed in the now-open door to provide
suppression fire while Kramer dragged the injured Stokes to safety.

Later,
after the house had been completely cleared, the Marines found the
bodies of eight Chechnyan jihadists in the ruins. Three days later,
Stokes was back with his squad clearing houses. During the battle for
Fallujah, Stokes would single handedly kill nine insurgents.

Reflecting
on his narrow escapes, Stokes says, “There was something invisible in
front of me, protecting me, it was all the people back home praying for
me.”

Marine Lance Corp. Christopher Adlesperger
As
a high school student, Chris Adlesperger was a popular, soft-spoken,
deeply religious kid. Highly competitive and a star athlete, he
nevertheless had a gentle nature and wouldn’t go hunting because he
hated to wound or kill animals. To the surprise of many friends and
family members he joined the Marine Corps, and there he gained
widespread admiration as a warrior.

Before
the onset of the battle of Fallujah, Adelesperger led his fellow
platoon mates in prayer. On November 10, they moved into Fallujah and
cleared houses all day without incident.

Late
in the day, they reached a structure with a wall around it and an
outside stairway leading to the roof. Acting as point man for his
four-man squad, Adlesperger tried to knock down a gate. Lance Corp.
Erick Hodges, Adlesperger’s close friend, moved ahead and was cut down
by a burst of machine gun fire from inside.

Charging
the house, Lance Corp. Ryan Sunnerfield was wounded in the leg and Navy
Corpsman Alonzo Rogero was hit in the stomach. The insurgents also
began throwing grenades. Firing at the machine gun position,
Adlesperger ran to the two wounded men and helped them up the outside
stair and to the roof. As the insurgents stormed the stairway,
Adlesperger killed them, one by one.

From
the roof, he could see the jihadists pouring gunfire into Hodges’ dead
body, including two shots to the head. One ran from the house to seize
Hodges’ weapon and Adlesperger shot him. Meanwhile, the machine gunner
inside the house had the gathering Marine assault force pinned down.
Unable to get at the jihadists inside, Adlesperger used his grenade
launcher to blow holes in the roof and then poured fire on the
insurgents below. They returned fire and then ran into the courtyard.
Adlesperger killed four of them, each with a single shot to the head.

When
the 30-minute firefight was over, he had killed at least 11 jihadists
who had manned what later turned out to be an insurgent
command-and-control center. Marine Corps commanders theorized that had
Adlesperger not put the compound out of action quickly, it could have
thrown off the timing of the entire Fallujah assault and resulted in
significantly greater American casualties. For his heroism and for
rescuing two wounded platoon mates and saving the lives of many Marines
pinned down by machine gun fire, Adlesperger was promoted to lance
corporal.

One
month later, while re-clearing an area of Fallujah, Adlesperger’s unit
approached a non-descript building and was met by a hail of gunfire. So
many bullets struck Adlesperger’s body armor that he was turned around
and a bullet pierced his unprotected side, hitting his heart and
killing him instantly.

The
hundreds of Marines who knew Adlesperger were devastated by his loss.
One of them remarked to a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, “He had a
touch of greatness.”

Adlesperger has been nominated posthumously for the Medal of Honor.

Staff Sgt. David Bellavia, U.S. Army
One of the most amazing stories of heroism to come out of the battle for Fallujah is that of Army Staff Sgt. David Bellavia.

On
November 10, Bellavia’s platoon was ordered to clear a block of 12
buildings from which jihadists were firing on American forces.

The
first nine buildings were unoccupied, but were found to be filled with
enemy rockets, grenade launchers and other kinds of weapons. When
Bellavia and four others entered the tenth building, they came under
fire from insurgents in the house. Other soldiers came to reinforce the
squad and a fierce battle at close quarters ensued. Many American
soldiers were injured from the gunfire and flying debris.

At
this point, Bellavia, armed with a M249 SAW gun, entered the room where
the insurgents were located and sprayed the room with gunfire, forcing
the jihadists to take cover and allowing the squad to move out into the
street.

Jihadists
on the roof began firing at the squad, forcing them to take cover in a
nearby building. Bellavia then went back to the street and called in a
Bradley Fighting Vehicle to shell the houses. After this was done, he
decided to re-enter the building to determine whether the enemy
fighters were still active.

Seeing
a jihadist loading an RPG launcher, Bellavia gunned him down. A second
jihadist began firing as the soldier ran toward the kitchen and
Bellavia fired back, wounding him in the shoulder. A third jihadist
began yelling from the second floor.

Bellavia
then entered the uncleared master bedroom and emptied gunfire into all
the corners, at which point the wounded insurgent entered the room,
yelling and firing his weapon. Bellavia fired back, killing the man.

Bellavia
then came under fire from the insurgent upstairs and the staff sergeant
returned the fire, killing the man. At that point, a jihadist hiding in
a wardrobe in a bedroom jumped out, firing wildly around the room and
knocking over the wardrobe. As the man leaped over the bed he tripped
and Bellavia shot him several times, wounding but not killing him.
Another insurgent was yelling from upstairs, and the wounded jihadist
escaped the bedroom and ran upstairs.

Bellavia
pursued, but slipped on the blood-soaked stairs. The wounded insurgent
fired at him but missed. Bellavia followed the bloody tracks up the
stairs to a room to the left. Hearing the wounded insurgent inside, he
threw a fragmentary grenade into the room, sending the wounded jihadist
onto the roof. The insurgent fired his weapon in all directions until
he ran out of ammunition. He then started back into the bedroom, which
was rapidly filling with smoke.

Hearing
two other insurgents screaming from the third story of the building,
Bellavia put a choke hold on the wounded insurgent to keep him from
giving away their position.

The
wounded jihadist then bit Bellavia on the arm and smacked him in the
face with the butt of his AK-47. In the wild scuffle that followed,
Bellavia took out his knife and slit the jihadist’s throat.

Two
other insurgents who were trying to come to their comrade’s rescue,
fired at Bellavia, but he had slipped out of the room, which was now
full of smoke and fire.

Without
warning, another insurgent dropped from the third story to the
second-story roof. Bellavia fired at him, hitting him in the back and
the legs and causing him to fall off the roof, dead.

At
this point, five members of 3rd Platoon entered the house and took
control of the first floor. Before they would finish off the remaining
jihadists, however, they were ordered to move out of the area because
close air support had been called in by a nearby unit.

Bellavia’s
superiors believe his actions during that day of combat saved three
platoons from possible destruction. For that action and for his courage
in single-handedly clearing a house with at least six jidhadists,
Bellavia has been nominated for the Medal of Honor.

Now
returned to civilian life, Bellavia is not concerned about recognition
for himself. He is passionate, however, about the general lack of
recognition paid to the sacrifices of our troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

As a
director of Vets for Freedom, Bellavia says, “My mission is to identify
who in our generation is special and to see that they get the
recognition they deserve.” Bellavia adds the he is “nauseated” by the
fact that more medals for valor have not been awarded – especially to
enlisted men. “By my count,” he says, “there should have been at least
11 Medals of Honor awarded by now. To date there is only one.”

Bellavia
faults the Department of Defense hierarchy for this problem and the
media for their lack of interest in the heroes of Afghanistan and Iraq.
He also faults many members of Congress for their failure to seek out
and recognize the returning heroes of their states and districts and
says, “We should be celebrating our [heroes'] valor and putting it on a
pedestal. These young men are the best of our generation.”

Mr. Roberts, President of Radio America, was executive director of the American Conservative Union from 1974 to 1977.

Copyright
©2006 HUMAN EVENTS, (Nov. 6, 2006).  All Rights Reserved.  Reprinted
here on November 6, 2008 with permission from Human Events.  Visit the
website at www.humaneventsonline.com.