FALLOUJA, Iraq — Soon, the Marines would be marching forward in Great War-style formations on a chilly, rainy evening imbued with a sense of the apocalyptic. But for now, the troops crouched in foxholes gouged from the desert north of Fallouja, scanning the fireworks.
An immense barrage of air and artillery strikes rained down on the rebel-held city, and the Marines roared with every blast. Force Recon was at work.
Almost two days before the battle for Fallouja, the Marines' elite Force Reconnaissance units had infiltrated the northern periphery of town. They had dug into "hide sites" and "shaped" the future battlefield, calling in guerrilla positions for the spectacular bombardment that preceded the invasion.
" 'Shaping' the battle is making the enemy do what you want him to do," said Marine Gunnery Sgt. Ed McDermott, 35, of Force Recon. "You drop bombs on him. You make him pull back. You subject him to direct and indirect fire. You cut off his supply lines."
The prevailing narrative of the fight for Fallouja was the dominance of 12,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops over a spirited but outgunned and outmanned insurgent army.
Little noticed outside Marine circles was the important role of the several dozen troops of Force Recon, who reported on insurgent positions, spearheaded attacks, covered advancing infantrymen and squeezed off sniper rounds at unsuspecting bands of guerrillas.
"Force Recon provided us with some tremendous capabilities," said Col. Craig Tucker, who headed one of the two major battle groups that descended on this city last month. "I just can't say enough about the job they did."
The specially trained Marines are similar to Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets and Rangers. Their precise role is often shrouded in secrecy, but a group attached to the 1st Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment during the battle of Fallouja agreed to talk as the fighting raged.
"We enjoy what we do," said Capt. Jason Schauble, 29, a Force Recon commander whose platoon suffered casualty rates of more than 50% during the fight, though most returned to action. "There's a lot of risks, but we're all volunteers. We understand the risks."
They spoke late at night in this blacked-out and devastated city from their perch in a darkened fourth-floor apartment that once housed guerrilla gunmen.
In one of the rooms, Staff Sgt. Mark Detrick lay on his stomach in classic sniper position, his rifle balanced on a tripod, its muzzle protruding through a punched-out hole in the wall. "They don't have a clue what's coming," Detrick said, scanning the ruins of the city to the south, where unseen combatants were still dug into the rubble and moving about.
The platoon's push into Fallouja had been difficult. Guerrilla squads of four to six fighters attacked from fortified positions in abandoned homes, alleyways, courtyards and on rooftops.
"We were shooting in all directions," Schauble said, recalling that first full day inside Fallouja. "There were enemy coming out, setting up mortars. There was enemy firing [rocket-propelled grenades], enemy firing machine guns and small arms. We shot all day, at different targets."
Guerrillas in sneakers and track pants scurried from house to house, using weapons caches pre-positioned in anticipation of the U.S. attack that everyone knew was coming.
At that point in the battle, the unit's task was to support the Marine riflemen who were advancing into the city. The Force Recon team was watching the flanks, where the insurgents, seeking to evade prowling U.S. armored vehicles, chose to attack.
"They found the seam -- where we ended up being," Schauble said.
But Force Recon's role in the battle had begun earlier, when Marines hunkered down in the northern periphery of the city. They identified spots where troops on foot and in vehicles could cross the railroad tracks and pierce guerrilla defenses. Then they observed enemy positions.
On the evening of Nov. 8, the massive, pre-invasion bombardment of Fallouja began.
"We used F/A-18s, we used Harriers," said a pilot who served as forward controller. "When we needed it, we'd call in a strafing run," added the lanky, 37-year-old Marine, an officer who asked to be identified only as Frisky.
The Force Recon Marines advanced into the ominous streets of Fallouja. The gunfire, tracers and rocket flashes subsided as dawn approached. But first light broke with a renewed crescendo of gunfire. Guerrillas in ambush positions opened up from all sides. Some Marine units were pinned down for hours.
A Navy corpsman working with the Force Recon unit was hit in the back shortly after sunrise. Everywhere there was fire, some from the enemy, some from nearby Marines.
Detrick, under heavy fire, scampered into an open area on his way to what he hoped was a more secure position.
