My Men are My Heroes (10 page)

U.S. Marine Corps photo by LCpl Jeremy W. Ferguson

Patience and sharp eyes paid off as members of Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines and Iraqi special forces discovered a weapons cache on the Marine Corps' birthday, 10 November 2004. Two weeks of searching in Fallujah produced 191 weapons caches and 431 improvised explosive devices.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by SSgt Jonathan C. Knauth

By 11 November 2004 much of Fallujah had been overrun. Marines like these infantrymen from 1st Battalion, 8th Marines engaged in security and stability operations, which would later allow food, water, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies into the city.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by SSgt Jonathan C. Knauth

Cordon-and-knock, Marine Corps style, was demonstrated by a leatherneck with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines as he kicked in a gate in Fallujah where Marines and other coalition forces went door to door, floor to floor.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt Luis R. Agostini

Infantrymen of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines move through the rubble that was infested with terrorists looking to ambush Marines.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt Luis R. Agostini

This dramatic series of photographs of GySgt Ryan P. Shane taken by then LCpl Joel A. Chaverri won the Marine photographer the DoD Thomas Jefferson for Photojournalism award in 2004. Shane, of Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 7, ran into the Fallujah street to pull downed squad leader Sgt Lonny Wells, hit by a sniper, to safety. Shane was wounded in the leg, but survived. Unfortunately, Wells did not.

U.S. Marine Corps photos by LCpl Joel A. Chaverri

Luring the enemy is what it is all about to the sharpshooters of 1st Battalion, 8th Marines who used an old but effective trick while waiting and watching for terrorists hiding in Fallujah to give away their positions.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by LCpl Joel A. Chaverri

Jihad banners, found in Fallujah mosques, encouraged the insurgents to fight to the death. Cpl Miguel F. Lopez, a fire team leader in Company A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, watched as Iraqi security forces destroyed the captured propaganda.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by LCpl T. J. Kaemmerer