#OPERATION PHANTOM FURY DRIVER#

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.

#OPERATION PHANTOM FURY DRIVER#

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.

Operation Phantom Fury