Sgt. Tim Wittmer searches an abandoned amusement park in Fallujah, July 2006. (Monte Morin/Stars and Stripes)
This article first appeared in the Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, July, 20, 2006. It is republished unedited in its original form.
FALLUJAH, Iraq — As any Marine will tell you, Iraq is no walk in the park.
Unless of course the park in question happens to be a suspected hiding place for insurgent weapons and a launch site for mortar attacks.
With an eye out for insurgent snipers and other threats, Marines with the 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment swept through this city’s derelict Jolan Park on Saturday, peeking inside faded kiddy rides, down suspicious dirt holes and into crumbling concrete buildings in search of weapons.
The park, which was an area of heavy fighting in the battle to recapture Fallujah from insurgents in the fall of 2004 — or what Marines refer to as “The Push” — is an eerie collection of brightly colored, bullet-pocked rides that you would expect to find at a traveling carnival in the States.
“This isn’t Six Flags, I’ll say that,” joked Capt. Brendan Fogerty, 30, a resident of South Boston and the commander of 1st Platoon, Weapons Company.
Fogerty and his men didn’t find any weapons, but what they did find gave a whole new meaning to the term Point of Origin or “POO” site — the label the military uses for areas where the enemy launches mortar attacks.
“Whoa! It smells really bad in here,” Sgt. Tim Wittmer, 26, of Peoria, Ill., said as he stepped from a small concrete building. “It looks like people are using this as a bathroom.”
The 1-25, a Marine reserve unit headquartered in Massachusetts, has been dubbed “New England’s Own.” The unit, which falls under Regimental Combat Team 5, is responsible for keeping the peace in Fallujah along with Iraqi army and Iraqi police units.
A Marine walks beneath a Ferris wheel in Fallujah. The men of 1st Platoon, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines were looking for weapons and explosives. (Monte Morin/Stars and Stripes)
A one-time insurgent stronghold, Fallujah now has some of the most stringent security policies in Iraq. All entry points to the city are staffed by U.S. and Iraqi military and police, and residents and merchants must present a badge to enter. Also, ownership of firearms has been banned entirely here.
For Marines like Wittmer, whose first Marine tour was during The Push, the change in the city has been tremendous.
“They’ve made a lot of economic progress here and there’s a lot of construction going on,” Wittmer said. “It’s good to be able to see that … also, what I’m doing here is very different from the first time I was here. Now my role is policing the city, not attacking it.”
Insurgents still launch mortar, roadside bomb and sniper attacks on Marines and Iraqi security forces on a daily basis. A Weapons Company Marine was killed by small arms fire a couple weeks ago.
“All in all we have our daily incidents, but Fallujah is a comparatively safe place, especially compared to Baghdad,” said Lt. Col. Nathan Nastase, RCT-5 Operations Officer.
“For most of this war, at least since 2004, this area has been a focal point of the insurgency,” Nastase said. “Initially, it was a stronghold. Now, according to the deputy prime minister, Fallujah is the model city.”
