During Operation Phantom Fury (Al Fajr) in November 2004, the combined-joint assault to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah, Colonel Michael Shupp commanded Marine Regimental Combat Team 1. In this interview, focusing squarely on the battle itself - which he calls one of the most decisive urban victories our nation has ever seen - he provides excellent details and deep insights into the planning, the task organization and the daily, even hourly, conduct of the operation, as well as his experiences and working relationships with Iraqi security forces and with 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment (Task Force 2-7), an Army unit attached to RCT-1 specifically for Phantom Fury. About the battle itself, Shupp said: We all had our plan, and we expected the battle to go a certain way, but every one of us accepts the fact that things are going to change. None of us, however, expected it would change this quickly. None of us expected the fighting to be this desperate for these buildings. Shupp was also enthusiastic in his praise of 2-7. These guys are fighters, he said. These are the best soldiers I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’ll tell you it was just an honor to have them with us. What’s more, he added, We could not have had that success if it wasn’t for that Army battalion: their mortars, their maintenance, their fighting capability inside that city. I think they felt the same way, that they could have never cleared those buildings unless they had Marine infantry with them to go in and do it.
I think there was such a sense of camaraderie and reliance on each other, Shupp concluded. We had to take care of our brothers, we had to get through this, and I think that’s what allowed us to have the success we had and the small number of casualties we actually had for it.