In 2012, Bellavia signed an agreement with 2012 Oscar-winning producer Rich Middlemas to make his memoir into a major motion picture. In September 2010, the book was selected as one of the top five best Iraq War memoirs by journalist Thomas Ricks (author of Fiasco). In 2007, he published a memoir, House to House: An Epic Memoir of War, co-written with John R. He currently is president of EMPact America, an American energy resiliency organization based in Elma, New York. He attended the 2006 State of the Union address as an honored guest. He co-founded Vets for Freedom and served as vice chairman. In the moment that's very much rational."īellavia left the service after six years in 2005 as a staff sergeant. Years later, Bellavia recalled his actions as reactionary. Before they could go room by room clearing the structure, however, they were ordered to move out of the area because close air support had been called in by a nearby unit. He did not fire his weapon for fear of setting off an explosion and instead engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the insurgent, fatally stabbing him in the neck.Īt this point, five members of the platoon entered the house and took control of the first floor. Upon entering the room, Bellavia discovered it was filled with propane tanks and plastic explosives. He followed the wounded insurgent's bloody footprints to a room on the landing and threw in a fragmentation grenade. Bellavia chased the insurgent as he ran upstairs. The insurgent tripped and Bellavia wounded him. A fourth insurgent then emerged from a closet in the bedroom, yelling and firing his weapon as he leaped over a bed trying to reach Bellavia. When another insurgent began firing from a floor above, Bellavia returned fire and killed him. When he entered a bedroom, the wounded insurgent followed, forcing Bellavia to shoot him. A second insurgent fired at him, and Bellavia wounded him in the shoulder. Bellavia promptly shot him and charged into the house. During a lull in the fire, Bellavia approached the house again and observed an insurgent loading a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. While the Americans took fire from various vantage points inside the house, Bellavia called in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to shell the houses. "A light switch went off."Īccording to his Silver Star citation, Bellavia, armed with an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon gun, entered the room where the insurgents were holed up and sprayed it with gunfire, forcing the enemy to take cover and allowing the squad to move into the street. I wanted to be that leader that I promised I would be," he said. Bellavia seethed when he heard the anguished screams of his fellow Soldiers as they were wounded. The insurgents were entrenched in a makeshift pillbox under a set of stairs. "They just opened up on us with belt-fed machine guns," Bellavia said. The pair of hard-nosed contingents clashed immediately when the door of that 10th house opened. By the time they arrived on the city's outskirts, the 1st ID had been in Iraq for 10 months and had been involved in every major battle in the war up to that point. But Bellavia's unit was battle-hardened, too. They had interpreters, combat cameramen and were well-trained. The insurgents holding Fallujah were formidable. official told ABC News that catching Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was said to be operating in the city, was "the highest priority." The operation ended in late April with the formation of the Fallujah Brigade, a unit composed of Iraqis, which was charged with keeping insurgents out of the city. Marine forces launched Operation Vigilant Resolve to take the city back from insurgents. The impetus for the battle began in March when four American private military contractors from Blackwater USA were ambushed and killed in Fallujah. Marine Corps and was the bloodiest battle of the Iraq war. 7, 2004, and ended more than six weeks later on Dec. Also known as Operation Phantom Fury, the operation was a joint effort by American, Iraqi and British forces to drive out the Iraqi insurgency in the city. "I have had better birthdays, for sure," Bellavia told the Military Channel in 2009.īellavia's men were mired in the opening stages of the Second Battle of Fallujah.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |