This episode of The Spear features a conversation with Lt. Col. Coley Tyler. In late 2004, he was a captain serving as a battalion fire support officer in Iraq. That meant that when the Marines asked for his battalion to take part in the Second Battle of Fallujah, he had an important role to play. He coordinated artillery, mortars, and fire from supporting aircraft to do something, in the Army, we call shaping the battlefield. As he describes, in Fallujah, that meant destruction.
On August 11, 2004, Staff Sgt. John Borman’s platoon ventured out on what was supposed to be a short counter-mortar observation mission. Except that...
In 2002, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division deployed to Kuwait from its home at Fort Stewart, Georgia ahead of the invasion of Iraq. When...
On December 21, a suicide bomber detonated inside the dining facility on Forward Operating Base Marez outside of Mosul. Twenty-two people were killed in...