They were christened the Magnificent B*stards, yet they were warriors without a war.
Kept stateside aft 9/11 and near floating successful the Pacific during the penetration of Iraq successful 2003, the 1000 men of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines were told they were benchwarmers successful an epoch of combat.
America sent 21,000 different Marines to expanse crossed confederate Iraq successful March and April and execute the longest sustained overland beforehand successful Corps past arsenic they drove toward the superior of Baghdad - and glory.
Two months later, George Bush rode a Navy jet to a cinematic touchdown connected an craft bearer disconnected San Diego and declared the warfare each but over.
But erstwhile warfare exploded little than a twelvemonth later, the B*stard battalion recovered itself astatine the halfway of metastasizing attacks and unit crossed Iraq, warring successful the provincial superior of Ramadi.
During that Ramadi combat and passim 7 months of deployment, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines suffered among the highest casualties of immoderate different battalion: successful all, 30 percent of 2/4’s astir 1,000 troops - oregon 289 Marines and sailors - were killed oregon wounded.
The battalion’s hardest-hit company, Echo, had a casualty complaint of 45 percent.
Yet overmuch of the world’s attraction astatine that infinitesimal would beryllium focused connected an battle by respective 1000 different Marines connected the smaller metropolis of Fallujah, and what happened successful Ramadi was astir mislaid to history. James Mattis, Marine commandant and aboriginal caput of defense, would 1 time attest earlier Congress that Ramadi was ‘one of the toughest fights the Marine Corps has fought since Vietnam’.
George Bush rode a Navy pitchy to a cinematic touchdown connected an craft bearer disconnected San Diego and declared the warfare each but over
In all, 30 percent of 2/4’s astir 1,000 troops - oregon 289 Marines and sailors - were killed oregon wounded during the combat successful Ramadi
It was connected the battlefields of Ramadi wherever traumatic encephalon wounded from weaponry blasts and post-traumatic accent upset began afflicting troops successful ample numbers.
And the American subject was utterly unprepared. Apart from a battalion chaplain making rounds, determination were astir nary uniformed therapists to counsel Marines troubled by immoderate fig of torments - the affectional trauma of dense combat, the nonaccomplishment of adjacent friends, the guilt of surviving, the toll of taking lives, and the ambiguity of a warfare with blurred distinctions betwixt person and foe wherever what constituted triumph was a motivation conundrum.
A Pentagon argumentation to afloat clasp and beforehand intelligence wellness attraction was inactive years away.
Nor did subject medicine successful 2004 recognize the complexities of traumatic encephalon injury, peculiarly erstwhile it came to blast question vulnerability and however that differs from a stroke to the head. And it would beryllium years earlier probe showed that TBI, PTSD, and slump could beryllium inextricably linked, with the wounded from a weaponry blast aggravating the affectional upset from the acquisition of war.
It would, again, beryllium years earlier scientists understood that simply being adjacent an explosion, adjacent successful the lack of shrapnel wounds oregon nonaccomplishment of consciousness, could origin neural impairment.
Too galore Marines who survived Ramadi would aboriginal succumb to the scourge of suicide, the rising occurrence of which - crossed America’s subject and seasoned colonisation - would daze the federation for years to come. Headlines would shriek that 20 to 22 veterans were sidesplitting themselves each day. (VA methodology down the numbers, it aboriginal turned out, was flawed and the existent complaint was person to 16 per day, inactive acold higher than nonveteran suicides.)
When the existent warfare successful Iraq started successful 2004, the American subject was not adjacent up to the task of providing capable conveyance armor to defender against what was rapidly becoming the enemy’s limb of prime - the roadside bomb, oregon IED (improvised explosive device), which debuted astatine standard connected the streets wherever the Magnificent B*stards waged combat.
Still, galore Marines took shoddy protective measures of bolted-on sheets of metallic successful stride, successful the contented that the Corps ever had to bash much with less.
Much of the world’s attraction would beryllium focused connected the battle connected Fallujah, and what happened successful Ramadi was astir mislaid to history
The B*stards' caller commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Kennedy, was charged with not conscionable rebuilding leadership, but dealing with the wide-scale hemorrhaging of enlisted Marines who were present up for transfer
Matthew Milczark's termination connected the eve of going to war, was seen arsenic a atrocious omen among his chap Marines
Indeed, erstwhile they yet returned from their duties in the Pacific to hole for conflict successful Ramadi, their caller commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Kennedy, was charged with not conscionable rebuilding leadership, but dealing with the wide-scale hemorrhaging of enlisted Marines who were present up for transfer.
The instrumentality for making Marines kicked into precocious gear. In the abstraction of 3 months, the battalion received a bid of ‘boot drops’ - arriving batches of recently minted Marines conscionable retired of footwear campy and the Corps School of Infantry.
As ranks were replenished, 40 percent of the battalion’s inferior enlisted infantry-men were marque spanking new, 229 successful all, an unusually precocious influx astatine specified a precocious hour.
Almost fractional showed up successful January, a fewer weeks earlier the battalion would caput to Kuwait and past connected to Iraq.
They were the youngest of men with astir nary beingness experience, rushing headlong into a convulsive and uncertain future. In a fewer cases, arsenic their Marine brethren would larn from backstage barrack conversations, that included immoderate who had ne'er had sex. And tragically, arsenic it turned out, ne'er would.
Their communicative has mostly been untold - arsenic has the bequest that inactive haunts them 20 years on.
A atrocious omen
Tragedy would onslaught the battalion adjacent earlier they reached Iraq. It progressive 1 of the caller boots, Matthew Milczark, homecoming king from Kettle River, Minnesota.
On a travel to 1 of the camp’s ablution trailers, Milczark was spotted pocketing an electrical shaver near down by a soldier.
Milczark’s platoon sergeant from Echo Company, Damien Coan, called Milczark retired successful beforehand of the full platoon for a terrible dressing-down.
He ordered the young Marine to basal defender work each nighttime and draught an effort astir integrity.
It was a communal punishment handed down by a elder enlisted officer, the benignant of justness dispensed astir regular successful the US military. But this time, connected the eve of going to war, thing went terribly wrong.
They were the youngest of men with astir nary beingness experience, rushing headlong into a convulsive and uncertain future
On the battlefields of Ramadi, traumatic encephalon wounded from weaponry blasts and post-traumatic accent upset began afflicting troops successful ample numbers
The adjacent morning, March 8, a pistillate work subordinate came moving retired of the chapel screaming. There was humor splattered connected the wrong of the structure ceiling and a dormant Marine connected the floor. Milczark had changeable himself with his M16.
The teen had near a enactment behind. 'I compromised my integrity for the terms of a $25 razor. I fearfulness that wherever we’re going, I won’t beryllium trusted.'
The incidental was a shattering acquisition for Echo Company. Word rapidly dispersed done the remainder of the battalion.
For his chap Marines, the implication of the termination was simple: it had to beryllium a atrocious omen for what laic ahead.
Kill shots
Years aft the battle, Chris MacIntosh’s memories would transportation him backmost to that time helium was trapped successful a carport connected the outskirts of Ramadi. Back to the termination shots helium fired. And the tears would flow.
The recollections sometimes came to him erstwhile helium was alone, soaking successful a tub of lukewarm h2o successful his water location location successful East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Flickering images ever unspooled the aforesaid atrocious story: men with AK-47s charging astir a corner, intent connected sidesplitting him and a comrade Marine.
Crouched beside him was a 19-year-old backstage archetypal people hardly retired of precocious schoolhouse and basal training.
He and MacIntosh had raced into the courtyard of this house, afloat alert that astatine slightest a fractional a twelve oregon much force gunmen were steps behind.
The bitter conflict for Ramadi was, according to James Mattis, ‘one of the toughest fights the Marine Corps has fought since Vietnam'
Years aft the battle, Chris MacIntosh’s memories would transportation him backmost to that time helium was trapped successful a carport connected the outskirts of Ramadi
The 2 had slipped astir a country into the carport and, astatine the beforehand of a parked sedan, rifles astatine the ready, were abruptly prepared to marque a past stand.
So the bodies piled up. First one, past two, past three, tumbling down successful the carport, a acheronian reddish excavation of humor oozing crossed the factual floor. MacIntosh and the backstage were firing astir point-blank.
A 4th combatant emerged, a antheral with a acheronian and aggravated look arsenic if pissed arsenic hellhole astir immoderate was going on.
He pulled up abbreviated astatine the entrance, but the Marines changeable him down, too. Then MacIntosh, for bully measure, enactment a slug successful each man’s caput to defender against a wounded force pulling a trigger oregon the pin connected a hidden grenade.
Kill shots.
Days aft the battle, helium felt pridefulness successful his quality to bash what was necessary. He’d proven himself a Marine: the consummate clear-headed warrior who could termination erstwhile the clip came. No amended friend, nary worse enemy.
It was a stark opposition to MacIntosh’s cultivated estimation arsenic platoon people clown, the skinny goofball who drove officers nuts until they realized helium had a acquisition for boosting morale erstwhile his chap Marines were astir successful need.
But those nights - years aft Ramadi - MacIntosh soaked and wept, that unfettered tone was gone. In its spot was an ethereal web of harrowing, existential questions that stoked doubts.
What was that each about? Who precisely was the enemy? How could I person been granted specified godlike power? And wherefore does it feel, successful the end, that I killed a clump of radical successful their ain backyard who were conscionable defending their homes?
‘I did a horrible thing’
Grainy footage from an overhead information camera shows a middle-aged antheral successful jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, unsteady from excessively galore drinks, dilatory turning to grasp the backmost of a edifice seat with some hands.
The images are from the DarSalam Iraqi edifice successful Portland, Oregon, successful April of 2017. The antheral successful the hooded sweatshirt is 40-year-old Marine sergeant large Damien Rodriguez, seasoned of 4 combat deployments and recipient of the Bronze Star for valor during vicious warring successful Ramadi 13 years before.
The video would bring his decorated subject vocation to an end.
Damien Rodriguez had been awarded the Bronze Star for valor during vicious warring successful Ramadi earlier his downfall
Gregg Zoroya (left), writer of Unremitting, which is published June 17
When Rodriguez arrived astatine the edifice with a friend, a retired Marine, the 2 had already been drinking. They took a array wherever Rodriguez stared astatine scenes of the Iraqi countryside connected the edifice walls, glaring astatine employees, refusing to bid food, large and abusive.
‘F*ck your food. F*ck your restaurant,’ witnesses heard him say. ‘I person killed your people.’
When a waiter told Rodriguez to beryllium respectful, the video shows the Marine, present connected his feet, turning to drawback the chair. He pauses arsenic if to dependable himself, and then, starring with his near hip, helium swings the seat truthful hard that helium not lone knocks down the waiter but loses his equilibrium and goes sprawling to the floor.
He comes up swinging, and a clutch of radical restrain him.
The apprehension that followed drew nationalist headlines arsenic prosecutors weighed whether to nonstop Rodriguez to situation for a hatred transgression oregon see leniency for a combat seasoned that sizeable grounds showed was afflicted with terrible post-traumatic accent disorder.
A defence lawyer offered wellness records proving Rodriguez’s self-denied conflict with flashbacks and alcohol. Among the searing images from Ramadi haunting him was the fly-covered corpse of a Marine helium found, different 19-year-old, who had been changeable done the head.
Rodriguez had documented successful a study however the young antheral was truthful terrified astatine the infinitesimal of decease that he’d pissed his pants
Prosecutors struck an statement calling for probation and a fine, but nary prison.
‘I did a horrible thing,’ Rodriguez said, apologizing successful tribunal to victims of his crime. ‘The incidental that took spot successful your edifice breaks my heart. That is not the antheral and Marine I am.’
Some days are amended than others
Buck Connor knows the medicine helium takes to quell tremors from Parkinson’s illness is nary cure. It buys the retired Army colonel, who lives successful the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains northbound of Atlanta, a fewer temperate hours wherever helium feels closest to normal.
Some days are amended than others. But the encephalon upset is ne'er going to improve.
Ramadi is the crushed for it.
In 2004, Connor commanded 1st Brigade of the Big Red One - the Army’s vaunted 1st Infantry Division, the oldest continuously operated part successful American history, organized successful 1917.
In a twist dictated by war’s exigencies, the Magnificent B*stards were attached to the Army 1st Brigade, led by Connor, and fixed the occupation of securing Ramadi.
With his office connected the borderline of Ramadi, Connor often ventured into the metropolis and into combat with his information detail, sometimes warring connected ft with a pump-action, 12-gauge shotgun loaded alternately with buckshot and slugs.
Always with his distinctive agleam yellowish leather gloves.
Eight times his bid file was attacked by roadside bombs. The worst of it was May 26.
Connor’s Humvee was 3rd successful a five-vehicle convoy heading retired of municipality astatine 40 miles per hr erstwhile buried integrative explosives and a 155mm artillery ammunition were detonated astir underneath wherever helium was sitting.
Buck Connor’s Humvee was 3rd successful a five-vehicle convoy erstwhile buried integrative explosives and a 155mm artillery ammunition were detonated astir underneath wherever helium was sitting
Buck Connor being treated aft 1 of the roadside bombs successful Ramadi - six years later, helium was diagnosed with Parkinson’s
The enemy’s limb of prime - the roadside bomb, oregon IED (improvised explosive device) - debuted astatine standard connected the streets wherever the Magnificent B*stards waged combat
Soldiers successful the conveyance down saw debris alert 200 feet into the aerial arsenic the detonation appeared to engulf the colonel’s Humvee. But overmuch of the shrapnel went the incorrect direction. Connor seemed astatine archetypal mostly unscathed.
The windshield blew out, and the Humvee was filled with particulate and the odor of cordite arsenic it rolled to a stop.
Connor, who was 44 astatine the time, felt an tremendous unit connected his thorax and assemblage erstwhile the weaponry went off, and mislaid consciousness. He collapsed aft being pulled from the vehicle.
When helium came retired of his haze, an Army doc tried to quiz him. Connor said helium was good and past passed out, regaining consciousness successful an Army assistance station.
He refused to beryllium evacuated to a higher level of aesculapian attraction for a encephalon scan. Instead, with the assistance of a compliant brigade surgeon, Connor continued attending unit briefings, hiding his dizziness oregon vomiting until helium near the meetings. All of it was beardown signs of traumatic encephalon injury.
Two months later, connected July 14, Connor was riding successful a afloat armored Humvee erstwhile a weaponry exploded successful the bosom of Ramadi.
Again, helium seemed unharmed, past took 2 steps from the Humvee and collapsed.
Connor remained successful bid until the brigade went home.
Six years later, helium was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a upset to which scientists person drawn a nonstop enactment from traumatic encephalon injury.
Excerpted from Unremitting: The Marine ‘Bastard’ Battalion and the Savage Battle that Marked the True Start of America’s War successful Iraq. Copyright © 2025 Gregg Zoroya. Published by Grand Central Publishing, a Hachette Book Group company, June 17. Available for pre bid now. Reproduced by statement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
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