On approximately 1 November 2004 the 1–206th FA was ordered by 39th BCT to resume responsibility for AO Ghost, the area of operations assigned to 2–7 CAV due to that unit's impending tasking to take part in Operation Al-Fajr, Second Battle of Fallujah, Iraq.
Atomic Games was developing an upcoming third-person military shooter/Survival Horror hybrid, Six Days in Fallujah, depicting The Second Battle of Fallujah.
He was cited for his reports from the assault on Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004, when the Marine company he travelled with lost a quarter of its men in eight days.
The medal was first awarded on 14 November 2008, to Marine Corps Lance Corporal James E. Swain, who died 15 November 2004, of wounds received while serving as a Marine Corps intelligence analyst during the Battle of Fallujah in Iraq.
Second Battle of Fallujah also known as Operation Al-Fajr (The Dawn) (2004), joint US-Iraqi offensive against the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah during the Iraq War
Second Battle of Fallujah, also known as Operation Al-Fajr (The Dawn), a 2004 joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive against the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah during the Iraq War
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On the night of November 11, 2004, during the Second Battle of Fallujah, McDade was a machine gun squad leader with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, 1st Marine Division, when his squad was attacked and pinned down by small arms and machine gun fire in an alley.