2008 Woodie Awards
Devastation everywhere along main supply route through Fallujah
James Janega - Chicago Tribune
Issue date: 11/17/04 Section: News
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FALLUJAH, Iraq - Sgt. Marc Veen, a 24-year-old Chicagoan, worked his way across the roof of a house on Route Henry and located an insurgent sniper who had set up his own rooftop vantage point a third of a mile away.
Adjusting for the distance and a light south wind, Veen held his breath, tightened his right index finger on the trigger of an M-14 rifle named Lucille, and hit the crouching Iraqi with a shot to the stomach. Two more rounds and the insurgent stopped moving.
Veen put the first bullet's brass casing into the webbing of his vest. It was a kill, his fourth since the fighting in Najaf in August.
"He would have gotten one of my buddies," Veen said.
Veen and other Army troops with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division spent Sunday defending Route Henry, the main north-south supply route through the city of Fallujah.
The street's name, Henry, is part of the U.S. military's system: all north-south streets are given male names, and all east-west streets have female names.
On Sunday, it was the 2-7's job to help keep Route Henry open for Marines who were attacking holdout fighters in the southern end of Fallujah and were using the road as a lifeline.
The battalion held three houses along a mile-and-a-half stretch of Route Henry. The devastation up and down the stretch was numbing. Holes dug for roadside bombs littered the median of the divided roadway, and craters pocked the street. Buildings with holes left by American explosive rounds lined the street. Rubble was everywhere, and electrical cords dangled like jungle vines.
Veen's group, Cougar Company, was on the southern end, where the remaining resistance was toughest. The northernmost group, Apache Company, exhausted from three days of fierce fighting, crawled overnight into a home on the quieter end of the 2-7's territory.
Soldiers found colorful mattresses leaning on a wall and spread them on a stone floor. Bulletproof vests leaned against walls as young men with far-off stares looked at nothing, or slept hard.
Adjusting for the distance and a light south wind, Veen held his breath, tightened his right index finger on the trigger of an M-14 rifle named Lucille, and hit the crouching Iraqi with a shot to the stomach. Two more rounds and the insurgent stopped moving.
Veen put the first bullet's brass casing into the webbing of his vest. It was a kill, his fourth since the fighting in Najaf in August.
"He would have gotten one of my buddies," Veen said.
Veen and other Army troops with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division spent Sunday defending Route Henry, the main north-south supply route through the city of Fallujah.
The street's name, Henry, is part of the U.S. military's system: all north-south streets are given male names, and all east-west streets have female names.
On Sunday, it was the 2-7's job to help keep Route Henry open for Marines who were attacking holdout fighters in the southern end of Fallujah and were using the road as a lifeline.
The battalion held three houses along a mile-and-a-half stretch of Route Henry. The devastation up and down the stretch was numbing. Holes dug for roadside bombs littered the median of the divided roadway, and craters pocked the street. Buildings with holes left by American explosive rounds lined the street. Rubble was everywhere, and electrical cords dangled like jungle vines.
Veen's group, Cougar Company, was on the southern end, where the remaining resistance was toughest. The northernmost group, Apache Company, exhausted from three days of fierce fighting, crawled overnight into a home on the quieter end of the 2-7's territory.
Soldiers found colorful mattresses leaning on a wall and spread them on a stone floor. Bulletproof vests leaned against walls as young men with far-off stares looked at nothing, or slept hard.