![]() Bellavia was a squad leader in the platoon. Army's Second Battalion, Second Infantry Regiment were ordered to clear a street block of 12 buildings where six or more militants had taken shelter. In the early morning hours of November 10, 2004, the men of Third Platoon, Alpha Company of the U.S. ![]() Falluja, known as 'The City of a Hundred Mosques,' located in Al Anbar Province, west of Baghdad on the Euphrates River, had become a stronghold for Iraqi Sunni insurgents and the most dangerous city in Iraq by early 2004 after the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The smells, sights and sounds of Iraq came trudging back. While the medal is a revered honor, it's also a reminder of what's often the recipient's worst day. ArmyĪsk any Medal of Honor recipient about receiving America's highest award for combat valor and the answer most often is a gray one. Colin Fitts, outside the Industrial District in Fallujah Iraq, during Operation Al-Fajr, November 2004. "I am sitting here with the vice president and some other people and we are going to bestow upon you the Congressional Medal of Honor for your great bravery," wrote Bellavia, recalling the phone call with the commander-in-chief. Eventually a familiar voice came on the line: President Trump. Bellavia had no idea, however, if the news would be good or bad. Bellavia was expecting a call, which had been canceled four times prior, from a senior Pentagon official. Jump back six months to this past December. "David's father, William, passed away in 2017, and though he is no longer with us, we know that today, he must be one of those proud dads looking down upon us from heaven and his very proud of his son, and his son's family," said Trump in his opening speech. In the East Room of the White House on Tuesday, previous Medal of Honor recipients, lawmakers, acting cabinet officials and current and former service members-some who fought alongside Bellavia-watched as President Trump hung the medal from his neck. The number of America's post-9/11 Medal of Honor recipients. The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the number of America's post-9/11 Medal of Honor recipients. He is the first living Iraq War recipient of the nation's highest honor for combat valor. "I often wonder how much war has affected us all."īellavia received the Medal of Honor from President Donald Trump for his actions 15 years ago on November 10, 2004-which also happened to be Bellavia's birthday. Sometimes regular life automatically triggers you back to that time in your life, wrote Bellavia in his book, House to House: A Soldier's Memoir. "Not thinking about Fallujah is possible, and quite effective as a means to move on. Bellavia, the memories of Falluja can seem as if they occurred fifty years ago or just yesterday. ![]() forces suffered six dead and 55 wounded.įor former U.S. The battle, known to veterans as Operation Phantom Fury, is where 82 American service members died and over 600 were wounded. ![]() ![]() forces had been involved in since Hue City in Vietnam in 1968. The second battle, in November, is infamous for being the bloodiest of the entire Iraq War (2003-2011) and the most intense urban combat U.S. Painful recollections center on two distinct battles in 2004. For the veterans of the Iraq War, Falluja is one of those places with bad memories. The invocation of certain places or names for American veterans can conjure up a flood of mixed emotions and astonishment over one's own survival through the carnage of combat. ![]()
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