Jan Bender remembers the moment as if it were yesterday. Taking cover from insurgents, his fireteam had just assembled in the dark in front of a house in Fallujah, Iraq, when the Marines were ...

FALLUJAH, IRAQ — In 2004 and 2005, the Iraqi city of Fallujah was a killing field. Al Qaeda dominated the streets. Insurgent snipers sought to pick off U.S. Marines on patrol. Some of the fiercest ...

Fred moves to a staging area in Camp Baharia, near Fallujah, Iraq, the day before Operation Phantom Fury. The photo was snapped by Max Becherer, a photojournalist who was freelancing for Time Magazine ...

FALLUJAH, Iraq - In a narrow alley, Marines pinned down by a hail of guerrilla fire sent up red smoke in a cry for help. Tanks pounded shell after shell into houses, while troops on the city's edge ...

When Mike Tabura shipped off to Iraq in 2004 with the Marines, he called his wife to announce his safe arrival. She told him: “I’m pregnant!” Tabura was 26 and soon deployed for Operation Phantom Fury ...

Marines say the restive Sunni Triangle, including Fallujah, is a particularly nettlesome environment for the development projects meant to win over Iraq's people. Following an aborted Marine attack in ...

NPR — along with seven public radio stations around the country — is chronicling the lives of America's troops where they live. We're calling the project "Back at Base." This is the first installment ...

Camp Lejeune, N.C. -- Tears and cheers marked the return this weekend of several hundred troops from a US Marines battalion that spent seven months in Iraq. Their duty included bloody missions in the ...

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Led by one of Saddam Hussein's generals, Iraqi troops replaced U.S. Marines on Friday and raised the Iraqi flag at the entrance to Fallujah under a plan to end the monthlong siege of ...

Editor’s note: For Veterans Day, PEOPLE is publishing a series of stories looking back at the service members and families affected by the two battles of Fallujah, in Iraq, in 2004 — combined, they ...