U.S. Marines ride a truck after multiple ambushes during intense combat south of Fallujah on April 15, 2004.Lynsey Addario/Getty Images
It’s been two decades since the Battle of Fallujah, the bloodiest battle of the global war on terror, during the Iraq War—a disaster we now know was based on a lie.
At the time, however, in the aftermath of 9/11, the battlefield was filled with troops who believed they were serving and defending their country against terrorism.
“Going to Fallujah was the most horrific experience of our lives,” said Mike Ergo, a team leader with the U.S. Marines Alpha Company, 1st Battalion. “And it was also, for myself, the most alive I’ve ever felt.”
This week on a searing new episode of Reveal, the team partners with the nonprofit newsroom The War Horse to join Ergo’s unit as they reunite and reflect on what they did—and what was done to them. Together, they remember Bradley Faircloth, a 20-year-old lance corporal from their unit who lost his life, and unpack the mental and emotional battles they continue to face today.
Listen here:
For more, don’t miss, “My Platoon’s Fight to Survive—and Heal From—the Bloodiest Battle of the Iraq War“, Thomas J. Brennan’s firsthand account of the Battle of Fallujah and its lasting moral injury and trauma, published by The War Horse and Mother Jones, in November 2024.
