Staff Sergeant Bellavia, entering further into the darkened room, returned fire and eliminated both insurgents. Simultaneously, the previously wounded insurgent reemerged and engaged Staff Sergeant Bellavia. As he entered, an insurgent came down the stairs firing at him. Staff Sergeant Bellavia, realizing he had an un-cleared, darkened room to his back, moved to clear it. Recognizing the grave danger the grenade posed to his fellow soldiers, Staff Sergeant Bellavia assaulted the enemy position, killing one insurgent and wounding another who ran to a different part of the house. He observed an enemy insurgent preparing to launch a rocket-propelled grenade at his platoon. Staff Sergeant Bellavia then re-entered the house and again came under intense enemy fire. A Bradley Fighting Vehicle was brought forward to suppress the enemy however, due to high walls surrounding the house, it could not fire directly at the enemy position. With enemy rounds impacting around him, Staff Sergeant Bellavia fired at the enemy position at a cyclic rate, providing covering fire that allowed the squad to break contact and exit the house. Recognizing the immediate severity of the situation, and with disregard for his own safety, Staff Sergeant Bellavia retrieved an automatic weapon and entered the doorway of the house to engage the insurgents. While clearing a house, a squad from Staff Sergeant Bellavia’s platoon became trapped within a room by intense enemy fire coming from a fortified position under the stairs leading to the second floor. Bellavia distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on November 10, 2004, while serving as squad leader in support of Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq. As they scrambled from the room, the ordnance failed to explode and was eventually detonated in place, taking the building’s upper floors with it.Staff Sergeant David G. Calling in Hurricane Isabelįrom the vehicle’s vantage point, the gunner likely saw the three infrared silhouettes of men in beanies and buffalo jackets poking their heads over a window ledge and assumed they were enemy insurgents, and not in fact, Marines.Īs Mardan and the others yelled over the radio for a ceasefire, there was a sudden thump - which he remembers to this day - as a TOW missile burst through the wall and skidded to a halt, sputtering feet away from the radio and right in the center of the Marines. Despite the incredible efforts to save the critically wounded Marine, he died of his injuries. As it turned, the ramp was lowered so the patient could be quickly moved off the vehicle. Locking up one tread, the driver deliberately fishtailed the vehicle so it spun around and lined the ramp up with waiting medical personnel. The Vietnam-era vehicle, which was designed to move through contested and rough ground, raced 60 miles an hour through the rubble-strewn streets of Fallujah before arriving at the train station where the battalion was headquartered. In a race to get the wounded man to the care he needed, an Army National Guard unit loaded the Marine into a M113 armored personnel carrier they were using as an armored ambulance. Nor would the wounded Marine be able to survive long enough for a Humvee to make it back to the battalion aid station. Patrick Gallogly, who was the battalion air officer at the time and was on the radio calling for a casualty evacuation. 14, there wasn’t enough time to wait for a helicopter to arrive at his location, explained Lt. When a Marine was shot between the eyes on Nov. A US Marine of the 1st division walks through the deserted western part of Fallujah, Iraq, Monday, Nov.
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