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Lima Company fights through Fallujah's mean streets

Marine Corps News

Story Identification #: 2004113012020
Story by Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte

FALLUJAH, IRAQ (Nov 30, 2004) -- Marines of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, fought their way through terrorists, insurgents and foreign fighters in Fallujah, Iraq, for two weeks during Operation Al Fajr.

This company of the "Thundering Third," who usually find themselves traveling in Marine Assault Amphibious Vehicles, moved throughout the city with only one platoon in AAVs. The rest of "Lima" Company moved throughout the city in Humvees, but moved mostly in dismounted patrols.

The Marines started their journey Nov. 8, when they were tasked to help seize their first objective of the operation, said Capt. Brian G. Heatherman, company commander, Lima Co.

"The company got the mission of seizing the train station (north of the city), which at that point was the battalion's main effort," said the 32-year-old from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Taking the train station allowed (combat) engineers to breach the train tracks which let the Army (2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment) to do the initial push to the northern part of Fallujah. Once the 2/7 Cavalry gained a foothold into the city, 3/1 moved in behind them, doing a detailed sweep through the town."

After the initial push past the train station, the battalion, along with 3/5, was tasked with clearing out the Jolan district of the city, which was said to house many of die-hard terrorist factions, noted Heatherman.

After two days of fighting it was apparent why it was thought that the enemy fighters would be tough to tackle, he added.

"For the initial push through the Jolan area, we found several caches," Heatherman continued. "They included not only ordnance, such as (rocket-propelled grenades), mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns, but also about 300 bottles of adrenaline, hypodermic needles, crack cocaine and other stuff."

"Basically, these guys are getting all hopped up (on drugs) to make them vicious fighters," he said. "They are certainly not as vicious as our Marines because they are just not making it, but they're doing whatever they can to give them confidence to fight us."

Lima Co. reached their objective of pushing south a few kilometers then west toward the Euphrates River before the two-day mark. All the fighting had not been without incident, Heatherman said.

"The enemy's tactics were to wait and let the heavy tanks bypass their positions while holding in small pockets," he mentioned. "We ended up losing four Marines in one day to little pockets of resistance, but we ended up killing these guys through the use of rockets and satchel charges. We'd bring the house down on them or whatever was necessary."

After reaching the Euphrates, Lima Co. repositioned with the rest of the battalion to continue pushing south. They first seized the high ground in the form of two five-story buildings, which gave the unit the full advantage of sight, Heatherman explained.


"The commanding view of the battlefield was just incredible," he said. "The buildings where we saw enemy, we had our (shoulder-launched multipurpose assault) gunners get on top of the buildings and lob rounds into those buildings and took them down."

While continuing the battle during the day, the company made a significant find amidst the multitudes of houses cramping the city streets.

"As the day went on, the Marines were attacking and checking suspicious buildings out," Heatherman described. "We discovered several caches in one building with computers, printing machines with Mujahideen anti-American rhetoric. It turned out to be a Mujahideen headquarters."

The building and its contents gave the Marines an inside look at their enemy.

"That building had a lot of scary things," he said. "The torture chamber at the bottom with bloody handprints on the walls, which really spoke volumes about the kind of people we're fighting. I'd say they're brutal, but yet they're cowards. There is nothing about them that's brave, these guys are just bullies. They persecute the weak."

After heavy fighting throughout the day, Lima Co. held their position and conducted a more in-depth search of its current position, which proved to be a good decision, Heatherman said.

"The next day we hung out for a day and decided to (re-check some bypassed houses)," he said "We decided not to stay static and that day we ended up running into more Mujahideen and killing them. It's real easy for these guys to get in our backyard and back clearing has been very effective. If we don't get them today, we're going to get them eventually."

The next day, the company started dealing with an entirely new situation.

"While we were in that static position, we heard 3/5 playing their surrender message using their (psychological operations) unit, and we had a whole new problem," he said while explaining the bonus of having the Iraqi National Guardsmen working with them. "We had to deal with a lot of displaced civilians. In addition to the fighting, handling civilians is where the ING has really been a combat multiplier for us."

"They can tell if these guys are Fallujans or foreign fighters, or guys that are trying to give up and claiming they have just been hanging out in their homes, when in fact they were fighting," he went on. "It worked well for us. We ended up dealing with well over 200-250 displaced civilians over the course of two days."

After dealing with the displaced civilians, it was back to fighting for the Marines.

"In the next few days, there was some hard fighting. We found some good pockets of resistance those days," Heatherman said. "Having the combined arms effect has been supporting the Marines well. One team, one fight here and everybody has his own job. It's unfortunate that we have (medical evacuations), but when we do, we're getting these Marines back and patched up quickly."

Lima Co. and 3rd Bn., 1st Marines are currently conducting "mop up" operations in Fallujah where they continue to counter the terrorist threat in the region.

"The Marines have been doing awesome and I think that they are getting into what they're doing," the captain continued. "In addition to that they are showing compassion. You've got these displaced civilians, especially the families, women and children. Marines are bringing them food and making sure they are taken care of. I'm really proud of my boys."