0:00

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0:02

clarity in retirement planning at Jackson.com.

0:05

Jackson is short for Jackson Financial

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Inc. Jackson National Life Insurance Company,

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New York.

0:15

Hey, it's Andy Grace, co-host of White

0:18

Lies. Now that our second season's wrapped,

0:20

we wanted to give you something else to listen to. It's

0:22

a new series from NPR called Taking Cover.

0:25

And one of the hosts, Graham Smith, was our

0:27

producer on the first season of White Lies. In

0:29

fact, it was just as season one was wrapping up,

0:32

that Graham was approached by longtime NPR correspondent

0:34

Tom Bowman to help dig into a tip he'd

0:36

gotten about a cover-up of a friendly fire

0:38

incident in Iraq in the spring of 2004. It's

0:42

a gripping story that they've been uncovering for

0:44

years now.

0:45

You can find the whole series in the Embedded Feed.

0:48

I'll let Tom and Graham take it from here.

0:51

Before we get started, you should know that this podcast

0:54

contains graphic depictions of of war,

0:57

and we're talking to Marines, so there's a

0:59

lot of cursing.

1:04

Camp Pendleton in Southern California is

1:06

the west coast home of the United States

1:08

Marine Corps, 200 square

1:10

miles of hills and wetlands and long

1:12

stretches of beach just outside San Diego.

1:16

On its edge, there's a sharp hill covered

1:18

with scrubbed trees and bushes that overlooks

1:20

the Pacific Ocean. It's called

1:23

Horno Ridge, and over the last 20

1:25

years, it's become a place

1:27

of pilgrimage, where Marines sweat

1:30

and suffer

1:31

to honor their dead.

1:36

The hike up is steep and rocky,

1:38

with two false summits. And

1:41

at the top, a small

1:44

field of crosses and memorials. Dozens

1:47

of them. sizes, some pieced together

1:50

from tree branches or lumber, some

1:52

weighing hundreds of pounds, each

1:55

one carried up by Marines and

1:57

Sailors.

2:00

Scott Radetsky

2:02

has climbed Horno Ridge many times. There

2:05

are hundreds, perhaps thousands,

2:07

of keepsakes and mementos.

2:10

I mean everything from a coin to a

2:12

wedding ring to

2:14

a metal, a purple heart to,

2:16

I don't know, bottles

2:19

of liquor that were poured

2:23

out, a drink for their fallen

2:26

comrade. Radetsky is

2:28

a retired chaplain. He doesn't

2:30

like the messy piles of empty bottles

2:32

and cans, but he knows

2:35

they're only part of what people

2:37

leave behind on the ridge. More

2:39

important

2:40

are the unseen burdens, the

2:42

sorrow, the sadness. The

2:45

anger, regret, who, here's

2:47

a big word, shame. When someone

2:49

dies and you don't, the

2:53

grief that's their survivor's

2:55

guilt. And

2:57

hopefully the lingering that takes place on

2:59

the hill is part of that, that

3:02

you can move past

3:05

the horrific things that you've maybe seen

3:07

or done. Champlain-Rudetsky

3:12

got the Hilltop Memorial started in

3:14

the spring of 2003. His unit

3:17

lost a Marine in Iraq, killed

3:19

just minutes after the invasion began.

3:22

Months later, those Marines were back

3:24

at Pendleton, preparing for yet

3:26

another deployment to Iraq.

3:29

In that death, it still

3:31

hung over them.

3:35

One day, the chaplain gets an idea. He

3:38

finds some sections of old telephone

3:40

pole and bolts them together. The

3:42

Marines already trained on the ridge. He thought

3:44

maybe the pain and suffering

3:47

of carrying this massive cross up the

3:49

trail could create a bond. and

3:52

they'd leave the cross itself on top

3:55

as a memorial. So,

3:57

Rodetsky and six others, two officers...

4:00

two riflemen and two medics, become

4:02

the first to do just that. They

4:05

carry the cross on their shoulders up

4:07

until almost the end. The

4:09

final stretch is so steep they

4:11

have to push it, drag it a foot

4:14

or two at a time

4:15

until they reach the top. And

4:17

they're the ones who inspired this field

4:20

of crosses which grows

4:22

year after year as of wars

4:24

in Iraq and Afghanistan

4:26

drag on.

4:30

In time, three of the seven men who

4:32

carried and pushed that first

4:34

cross up the trail in the summer of 2003 would

4:37

themselves be memorialized

4:40

on Horno Ridge.

4:41

One was killed in a firefight in

4:43

Baghdad, another by a roadside

4:46

bomb. And

4:48

that last Marine, his

4:50

death has always been kind

4:53

of a mystery. A mystery we've

4:55

spent the last three years investigating.

4:58

Not just because of this one man, others

5:01

died with him, but because as we

5:03

started to find out it was all part

5:05

of a greater tragedy, covered up

5:07

by powerful people looking

5:09

to keep the American public and even

5:12

the families of those who died from

5:14

hearing

5:14

the truth. to

5:17

story about mistakes, faulty assumptions,

5:19

miscalculations, lies.

5:23

This is Taking Cover from NPR. I'm

5:25

Tom Bowman. And I'm Graham Smith. This

5:28

is the story of our efforts to

5:30

learn about the lives lost and why

5:33

families and even the men who were badly

5:36

wounded still don't know the truth

5:39

about what happened to them on the worst day

5:41

of their lives.

5:44

See the hole in the building? It's

5:47

like a square. And when they

5:49

launched that mortar it hit,

5:52

boom! I mean,

5:53

one out of a million shots. We

5:55

were sitting on those stairs and he looked really

5:57

pale and he looked shaken and I don't think he'd slept.

6:00

And he said, doc, I think I fucked up. And

6:02

I was like, well, what did you fuck up? And he's

6:04

like, well, I can't really talk about it, but I think I fucked up. I think

6:06

I fucked up. They're

6:07

hiding something for a reason, and they

6:09

don't. There's something that hasn't

6:11

been disclosed yet. There's

6:13

got to be something. Why are they keeping it

6:15

such a, why did they keep it a secret to begin

6:18

with? The fact that nobody

6:20

has said anything, concrete, no

6:23

paperwork, nothing, and

6:25

I'm just now finding out there was even an

6:27

investigation, that's kind

6:30

of unsettling. I don't

6:32

care. So why he didn't

6:34

tell us?

6:36

Why he lied to us? That's

6:39

I want to know. Well,

6:42

for us, this whole thing started with

6:44

a tip, a stunning and disturbing

6:47

allegation from a trusted source. How's

6:50

it going? Good. All

6:52

good. That was a final security

6:55

check now in the building itself. The

6:57

building. That's what people here call the

7:00

Pentagon. I've worked here covering

7:02

the U.S. military for the last 25 years. Walking

7:06

along the E-ring. Typical

7:09

morning. You see people in the hallway. Nothing's

7:11

in China.

7:12

I work him out. I don't

7:14

know if I'm MPI or if they're PASI. I might run into

7:16

a colonel I knew in Afghanistan or a

7:18

general visiting from his overseas command

7:21

who can tell me what's really going on.

7:24

But there are some things, well,

7:26

people just don't want to talk about in the building.

7:30

So I might call them at home at night,

7:32

or we might meet up at a bar.

7:35

Which is what happened one night at a whiskey

7:38

bar in DC. Actually, this

7:40

very bar, a guy who spent

7:42

a lot of time in Iraq told me a story

7:45

very few people knew. He

7:47

told me that early in the Iraq War, there'd

7:50

been this tragedy. US

7:52

Marines had dropped a mortar or a rocket

7:54

on their own people. That's what they

7:56

call friendly fire. Now in this

7:58

case he said one... Marine

8:00

was killed and another seriously

8:02

wounded. Friendly fire deaths,

8:04

they happen. They happen in every war

8:07

throughout history. That's not what made

8:09

his story shocking. Here's

8:11

the thing. He said that the Marine

8:13

brass had actually covered it up, bearing

8:16

the truth about this terrible incident because

8:19

he said the son of a powerful politician

8:22

was involved in the screw-up. Tom

8:28

came to me the next day, I asked if I could help

8:30

dig on this tip he'd just gotten. Since

8:32

9-11 Graham and I have spent years reporting

8:35

from combat zones, we've gone on

8:37

dozens of patrols. Dug foxholes

8:39

together. And come under attack while

8:41

embedded with Marines and soldiers. He's

8:44

working on the investigations team now, and

8:46

it felt like we could team up again.

8:51

The source who gave me this tip, he was, you know,

8:53

a little fuzzy on the details. that

8:55

this Marine had been killed in the spring

8:57

of 2004 in Fallujah.

9:01

The Iraq War, if you lived through it, covered

9:03

it, maybe fought there, feels

9:06

like it was just yesterday, but this was 20 years

9:09

ago now. And we know for some

9:11

folks this is ancient history. Maybe

9:13

you were five when it kicked off. So very

9:15

basics. The U.S. invaded at

9:18

the beginning of 2003 and within

9:20

a few weeks defeated the Iraqi though

9:22

they never found any of the weapons of mass

9:24

destruction that were the whole reason for going in. Chemical,

9:27

biological, maybe nuclear. They

9:30

found nothing.

9:31

Still, the Americans occupied

9:33

the country. They were running things. They

9:35

figured they'd won. What

9:38

they didn't realize, a new

9:40

war was just beginning. Because

9:43

a lot of Iraqis hated the

9:45

American occupiers. They felt

9:48

humiliated,

9:49

brutalized. and

9:51

this city of Fallujah, it's

9:53

where the whole nature of the war started

9:55

to change. It became the center

9:58

of an insurgency that America would fight

10:00

to this day, really.

10:04

So was there a friendly fire incident

10:06

there? There was a major battle there in 2004

10:08

in the spring. It

10:10

didn't last long, just a couple of weeks

10:12

in April. And these days there were

10:15

pretty good online lists of casualties,

10:17

so we did what anybody would do. Quick

10:20

Google search.

10:22

It was a deadly month both for Iraqis

10:24

and for the U.S. Nearly 150

10:27

American troops were killed. 27 of

10:29

them in Fallujah that narrow

10:32

things down a bit, but still none

10:34

were listed as friendly fire. Nothing

10:37

seemed to fit.

10:38

For weeks, we poured through small-town

10:41

newspaper obituaries and press releases

10:43

the Pentagon sends out whenever a service member

10:45

is killed. Finally, we

10:48

got a break.

10:50

It was on one of those memorial web pages,

10:53

like the ones funeral homes set up for family

10:55

and friends to leave condolences. Only

10:58

this site is for fallen Marines,

11:01

and the entries for two different Marines killed

11:03

on the same day, Robert Zirhade

11:06

and Brad Shooter, actually told

11:08

a different story from the military press releases.

11:12

Each of the two pages said the Marine was killed

11:14

by friendly fire rather than hostile, like

11:16

the military reported, and they

11:18

were both from the same unit, Echo

11:20

Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine

11:22

Division, or, as the Marines would say,

11:25

Echo 21. And

11:28

another thing caught our attention, a comment

11:30

from someone named Corporal Gomez-Perez.

11:33

He wrote, April

11:34

12th is always on my mind

11:37

and every time I think about it I

11:39

just get mad. Man, it's

11:41

bullshit what happened.

11:45

Now the initial tip was one

11:47

dead, one wounded, but here we have two

11:49

Marines from the same unit who died

11:51

on the same day. Was this

11:53

the friendly fire? and filed

11:56

a records request with the Marines looking

11:58

for any information about the this

12:00

incident. Was there an investigation?

12:03

Now, this is where things get weird.

12:07

It usually takes months to get an

12:09

answer from the government, but here, after

12:11

just a couple of weeks, we got

12:13

a response. A thorough search

12:16

was made, the letter said. No

12:18

records on file. No

12:21

records?

12:22

It made no sense. Look, the military

12:24

investigates and documents everything,

12:27

whether it's a major or screw up or just someone

12:30

losing a piece of gear. Two

12:32

Marines killed?

12:34

Even if it wasn't friendly fire, there

12:36

should be some record of the day.

12:39

We

12:39

filed an appeal, asking them to look

12:41

again.

12:42

It was incredibly frustrating.

12:45

But you know what? There are other

12:47

ways. I started asking around at the

12:49

Pentagon, calling up both active

12:51

duty and retired officers, especially those

12:53

who served in Iraq. Have you guys

12:55

ever heard about this? Who was involved?

12:59

We'll hear more about that later.

13:02

With Tom

13:02

working the brass, I went looking for Grunts,

13:05

the guys who served in Echo Company. I

13:08

dug through books about the fight in Fallujah,

13:10

including one called No True Glory.

13:13

I knew the unit, Echo 21, and

13:15

the names of the Marines who died, plus

13:17

a date, April 12. But

13:20

across 378 pages, there is no mention of

13:24

a friendly fire incident that day or

13:26

any other. In fact, no

13:28

mention of April 12th at all. It

13:30

was as if nothing had

13:32

happened that day in Fallujah. But

13:36

I did find one clue. That

13:38

Corporal Gomez Perez from the memorial

13:41

webpage, there's a picture of

13:43

him in the center of this book, staring

13:45

into the camera, half his shoulder

13:48

torn away by a bullet. The book

13:50

says he was with Echo II woman. Between

13:52

that and the comment, April

13:55

12th is always on my mind and

13:57

every time I think about I just get mad.

14:00

I figured that corporal, Carlos

14:02

Gomez Perez, must have been with

14:04

Shooter and Zurheid when they were killed. I

14:07

found a number and called him. He was on

14:09

the road. He works in the cannabis industry now.

14:12

We set up a time to talk the next day.

14:16

That's ahead on Taking Cover from NPR.

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15:19

Hey, Carlos. Hi,

15:21

good morning, how you doing? Hey, I'm great. It's

15:23

good to hear you, man. It turns out Carlos

15:25

was part of Echo Company for the 2003 invasion, too. So

15:29

he served with Jose Gutierrez. He

15:32

was the Marine Memorialized with that first cross

15:34

on Horno Ridge. They were pretty

15:36

good friends. And like Gutierrez,

15:39

Carlos says he first came to America

15:41

illegally. I grew up in Mexico City. I

15:44

grew up in Mexico City and when I was nine,

15:46

I ran across the border to

15:48

get to San Diego.

15:51

We got caught, so I got, you

15:53

got pushed in jail. kept trying. Looking

15:55

back now, it's clear from those trips across

15:58

the desert that Carlos was all already

16:00

driven by character traits that

16:02

the Marines champion. I called him my

16:04

first mission, honestly. After being in the Marine Corps, I

16:06

called him my first mission because basically I was always in the

16:09

rear. Not because I couldn't keep

16:11

up, but to ensure that everybody in front of me was making

16:13

its way forward. He

16:15

finally made it. Grew up undocumented,

16:18

not far from Cam Pendleton. And

16:20

as soon as he turned 18, he became

16:22

a US resident, basically

16:24

just so he could join the Marines. I was told

16:27

that the Marine Corps was the hardest branch of

16:29

the military.

16:30

So I'm like,

16:33

let's see if that's true. I'd read

16:35

in that book, No True Glory, about the battle

16:37

where Carlos had been wounded and

16:39

how he was recognized for his valor that April. So

16:43

forgive my ignorance, did you get a Silver Star?

16:45

Yes. I was

16:48

awarded the Silver Star, and

16:50

I didn't know what Silver Star was, so I had

16:52

to Google it before I

16:54

received it. It's kind of strange he had to

16:56

Google it, because the Silver Star

16:59

is a big deal,

17:00

just two steps below the Medal

17:02

of Honor. It recognizes conspicuous

17:04

gallantry. That means ignoring

17:07

the danger, putting your life on the line

17:09

to help fellow Marines in combat. When

17:12

Carlos got home, he was pretty messed

17:14

up, not just his shoulder, but

17:16

mentally. Sure enough, April

17:19

comes around, and

17:21

intentionally my mind said go somewhere else. My

17:23

body reacts definitely, emotion-wise,

17:26

but it's been so

17:28

long that my son feels the same way. April

17:31

rolls around, his whole demeanor

17:34

changed.

17:35

He's been in treatment for PTSD

17:37

and he's getting better, but Carlos says

17:40

his family suffered with him.

17:42

In what sense does this fit that my son's 14

17:45

years old and I told him, I wish

17:47

I would have died in Iraq rather

17:49

than come back? Not because I don't

17:51

love you, not because

17:54

I don't mean the world to me,

17:55

because if I would have died, it would

17:57

have ended right there.

18:03

We talked about the incident, April 12th,

18:05

that whole month fighting in Fallujah, and

18:08

how it still lingers for him almost 20 years

18:10

later.

18:13

Carlos, he's still the kind of Marine who

18:15

keeps tabs on his buddies, looking

18:17

to make sure everybody makes it forward.

18:20

And over the next two years, he helped

18:22

us to get in touch with some of them,

18:25

including Ben Leota, dark Leota as

18:27

they call him. Ben was traveling in South

18:29

America with his girlfriend, a musician,

18:31

when I reached him. I set up a time to talk

18:33

and a week later, I called him from a studio

18:35

here at NPR. Thanks

18:38

to... I hear a ring. Hello.

18:40

Hey, Ben. Yes.

18:43

Graham here. Graham. Yeah, how you doing,

18:45

Graham? Okay. Hey, thank you so much.

18:48

He was in the Navy, a battlefield medic for the

18:50

Marines. He said he'd been there when

18:52

the explosion took place. You were corpsman,

18:54

right?

18:55

Yeah. Can you tell me, well, would

18:57

you mind just telling me your name and, you

19:00

know, where you're from, just the sort of basics so I can

19:02

make sure I don't screw that up? Well,

19:04

real quick before we get into it, I just wanted to ask a couple

19:06

questions myself. Absolutely. What

19:09

is the purpose of your documentary? Well,

19:11

I'll tell you the truth. Right now I'm still kind

19:13

of trying to... I told him about a clue I'd

19:15

found. Echo Company's captain,

19:18

Doug Zembeck, wrote a letter to his wife

19:20

on April 12, 2004. He

19:23

wrote, one of my Marines called

19:25

in a mortar mission. The round landed

19:28

short, killed two of my Marines.

19:32

Zembeck's wife published the letter years later in

19:34

a book about their relationship and his death.

19:36

But from the letter, it's clear the

19:39

company commander knew immediately it

19:41

was friendly

19:41

fire. And one of the things specifically

19:44

that came out was how long it had

19:46

taken to notify the families in

19:49

this incident. So

19:51

it's about that.

19:53

So that's where I'm at. Yeah.

19:55

I will say this. I

19:58

am always down for the truth. to

20:00

come out. I

20:02

mean, I think we both understand that the climate today

20:05

is insane, and I'm not

20:07

looking to be a part of a smear campaign that's

20:09

meant to make the Marines look bad. You know what I mean? Oh,

20:12

believe me. If your goal is truth, I'm

20:14

down with that. Yeah, I mean, I've spent

20:17

a lot of time with Marines

20:19

over in Afghanistan. I went in 2009 with 2-8 out

20:21

of Lejeune on

20:25

the whole insert into the Helmand River

20:27

Valley, and, you know, dropped in with

20:29

them on the helicopters. So you've been through the old

20:31

trip. Yeah,

20:32

yeah. And let me preface

20:35

this whole thing by saying, I,

20:39

you know, like, even after talking to

20:41

Carlos, you know, I was like back in the

20:43

zone for like a week, and my wife was

20:45

like, why are you being such a bitch? And,

20:48

you know, because... It's

20:50

been me this whole week waiting for this call. Yeah,

20:52

because it...

20:54

You can't not respond

20:57

to it on those levels. And so, thank

20:59

you. I appreciate

21:01

that, and no problem. Yeah,

21:04

all right. So let's do this officially.

21:07

Okay. Yeah. My

21:10

name is Benjamin Leota. I'm originally

21:12

from kind of all

21:14

over New York. Ben Leota was

21:16

just one of the men we talk with as we

21:19

tried to unravel this mystery about Echo

21:21

Company. If we were to get to the bottom

21:23

of the allocation about a cover-up, we

21:26

first had to understand more about what happened

21:28

on the ground. Bill Schiles

21:30

was there. He's a retired sergeant major,

21:33

invited us to his house in Virginia, about

21:35

an hour south of D.C. Just

21:39

before we even get into

21:42

this stuff, we

21:44

are obviously in your marine

21:46

room or something. What do you call this place? It's

21:49

my marine room. So some of these are

21:51

replicas of weapons. These

21:54

are these are we he pours us a couple of whiskey's and

21:57

settles down into a leather recliner

22:00

So expectations

22:02

going. We never heard of the city. Skiles

22:05

was a right-hand man to company commander

22:07

Doug Zembeck. I remember Zembeck going on a map

22:09

in the hallway in Camp Horno. We're

22:11

going to a place called Falloja, or, what

22:13

the hell? They

22:14

got back to Iraq in March. And

22:17

our compound was called Camp Volturno.

22:20

And we renamed it Camp Baharia, a navy

22:22

term. We called it Camp Diarrhea.

22:24

Of course we did. Terrible place.

22:27

So here we are a battalion of Marines going to

22:29

Fallujah

22:30

Remember President Bush said as of what may have

22:33

of oh three major combat

22:35

operations in Iraq have ended the war's

22:37

over in the Battle of Iraq The

22:39

United States and our allies have

22:42

prevailed

22:46

So, okay. Yeah mission accomplished

22:49

Yeah, anyway, so we go

22:51

up there and the expectations of all the Marines. I mean we

22:53

actually played football I remember

22:56

we spent more than five hours with Bill Skyles

22:58

that night Between what he told

23:00

us Carlos and Ben and

23:02

dozens of others plus audio

23:04

recorded in the city that month We've

23:07

pieced together this account of

23:09

their arrival in Fallujah and the days

23:11

leading up to the April 12th explosion They

23:14

killed Brad shooter and Rob's our hide

23:16

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24:13

We've just gotten the briefs. The new commander

24:15

had some words, wisdom, and

24:17

we were doing all the Matt-Dawg-isms

24:21

because he was our division commander. Brigadier

24:23

General James Mattis.

24:25

Years later, Mattis served as Defense

24:28

Secretary under Trump, But Iraq

24:30

is where he made his reputation, became

24:32

an icon in the Marine Corps, with

24:34

nicknames like Mad Dog, St.

24:37

Mattis. He's very quotable.

24:39

No, no greater

24:41

friend, no worse enemy. We're here

24:43

with the velvet glove approach. It's

24:47

late March. The Marines are

24:49

in Fallujah to take over from

24:51

the army. You will go in there and win the hearts

24:53

and minds. You got to be there almost like a

24:56

police officer, so I'm

24:57

like, okay. Fine,

25:00

we'll do that.

25:02

It was something far, far

25:04

from the truth. We thought we were

25:06

moving in for security and stability, you

25:08

know, when the hearts and minds of the people, and it seemed

25:11

like that was just not something the locals

25:13

in Fallujah were interested in. One

25:15

reason? The heavy-handed tactics

25:18

of the 82nd Airborne, the Army

25:20

unit they were replacing. I mean, I looked it

25:22

up, and everything online said

25:24

it was a hornet's nest. You know, you read everything

25:26

that the 82nd Airborne went through over there,

25:29

and we

25:31

still were like more like, we just

25:33

didn't know what to expect. And

25:35

then we got there and started

25:38

asking the Army how everything was and it seemed like the Army

25:41

didn't really know what they were doing. And

25:44

I don't mean to say that just to tell crap about the branches,

25:47

but from their own stories, they

25:49

were like, no, we just drive through and

25:52

don't even stop when we hit somebody and like we just shoot

25:54

when we're shot at without even knowing

25:56

what we're shooting at. that. It's just like,

25:58

wow, I think there's a reason.

27:56

A

28:00

mortar, if you're not familiar, it's kind

28:02

of like a grenade, but shaped like

28:04

a bowling pin. Recently, we

28:07

watched some Marines train, launching

28:09

them out of metal tubes set on tripods.

28:11

When ready, come on.

28:15

The round rises high up into

28:17

the sky and drops down onto

28:19

the target with a deafening explosion.

28:23

Boom, a mortar hit here, and then, okay, it's

28:26

kind of like, welcome, Marine Corps. Welcome

28:28

back.

28:32

13 Americans are wounded. Skyles

28:35

and Captain Zembeck help evacuate the casualties,

28:38

get soaked in blood. Once

28:40

we got back, Zembeck and I walked the chow

28:43

hall with the same cammies we had. He

28:45

was a lot more red.

28:48

I remember the company looking at us, going,

28:52

this is not fucking Candace anymore. April

28:59

is fast approaching and that hearts and minds

29:01

thing? That's not going

29:03

well. The day after that

29:05

mortar attack, the Marines lose

29:07

their first man. An insurgent

29:10

fires a rocket propelled grenade at a Marine

29:12

truck.

29:13

RPG hit the Marine vehicle

29:15

dead stopped. RPG got

29:17

him and killed him. The

29:19

next day, General

29:22

Mattis, personally, they

29:25

killed a Marine, send

29:28

in the Marines.

29:31

I can't blame somebody for getting revenge.

29:35

You know, you don't fuck with the Marine Corps. We're

29:37

back and how dare you? So send

29:40

a company in.

29:42

We gave everyone a chance to get out. Basically

29:46

we dropped leaflets and did loudspeakers and we were like

29:48

if you there's a fight coming if you don't want to fight Get

29:50

the fuck out of the city right now And

29:57

while people were streaming out, fighters were

29:59

streaming in.

30:04

we were going

30:07

through this open like courtyard

30:09

thing and i always thought

30:12

something was off were walking

30:14

down and we turn said are right

30:17

and i'll never forget this little iraqi girl

30:19

came out and she kept clean and down

30:22

by squat down the street and

30:24

i mean i'm looking matter and they

30:26

are either she's warning

30:28

us or a signal

30:31

so it's what it it's wow that's kind

30:33

of a brave little girl right the if she was warning

30:35

yeah i guess he was warning this because

30:38

as soon as we turned the corner and so the

30:40

last shots came down from

30:42

the roof everything and

30:46

one of them hit l ron and

30:48

be almost got that was because he was he

30:50

got against the war and all the bullet

30:53

started spraying up on a side know my

30:55

so it was all

30:57

video game to me to be honest it was until

31:00

someone got shot it

31:03

was all surreal

31:07

i do remember that i remember once

31:09

eric l ron got it and i'll stop

31:11

me and again today and bowl stopped being

31:13

interesting ah

31:16

net and i started to just get my head

31:18

right take it in the right way

31:26

the marine offensive was having

31:28

an effect two days

31:31

went by he was evil

31:34

no more mosques

31:36

no more prayers i

31:39

made we would in the city and killed a couple of them

31:42

are more more who do first blood

31:44

they killed a marine general mattis

31:46

corner teach him a lesson we teach integrate

31:48

lesson it

31:51

turns out the insurgency was waiting

31:53

for a chance to teach the americans

31:55

the lesson going to begin with iraq

31:57

this evening for american civilians

31:59

were there today and as sometimes happens

32:02

the cameras were there for the gruesome aftermath.

32:05

Here's ABC's John Berman. On

32:08

the streets of Fallujah the brutal attack

32:10

was met with celebration.

32:16

We are from Fallujah they chanted

32:18

this is our work. Witnesses

32:21

say the two SUVs were ambushed as

32:23

they drove through town. It isn't just ABC

32:26

the mangled and charred remains

32:28

of Blackwater contractors hanging

32:30

off a bridge, flash across

32:32

TV screens

32:33

around the world, a clear

32:36

message from the insurgents. They

32:38

didn't kill them. They

32:40

killed them 20 times over. They couldn't get to us,

32:43

so they wanted to take it out in those four.

32:48

This is the last thing the White House needs.

32:52

Almost a year after mission accomplished,

32:55

troops still haven't found any evidence

32:57

of the alleged weapons of mass destruction.

33:01

The insurgency is growing stronger. Support

33:04

for the war back home is dropping,

33:07

but these are Americans dismembered,

33:09

burned. The White House doubles

33:12

down. The Marines are ordered to

33:14

clear Fallujah. Some of us

33:16

had recently returned from a patrol,

33:18

like outside the wire a little bit. I

33:21

remember just over the loudspeaker

33:24

announcement was made, You know, all Marines are pulled

33:26

back to your company areas. Hearts and

33:28

minds, forget it. General

33:30

Mattis is forced to drop the velvet glove.

33:33

The mission now,

33:34

search and destroy. That

33:37

night, Captain Zembeck jumps up

33:39

on the hood of a truck to motivate the men. It's

33:42

pitch black, but you see a figure. The

33:47

line of Fallujah, there he is.

33:50

Marines, this is our

33:52

Okinawa. This

33:55

is our ten offensive. This

33:57

is our Saipan.

34:00

time in history. Pretty cool.

34:02

And he goes,

34:04

we're fighting for, look to your left and right.

34:08

Those are your brothers you're fighting for him. Don't

34:11

you ever disrespect or dishonor the

34:14

American flag and what we stand

34:16

for through our history of

34:18

battle in the Marine Corps.

34:21

He finishes with this. May

34:23

the dogs of Fallujah eat hearty

34:26

off our dead enemy.

34:31

May the dogs of Fallujah eat hearty

34:33

off our dead enemies. By

34:39

now, it's the early hours of

34:41

April 1st.

34:42

That's

34:45

when the hornets nest started. Oh

34:48

no, that was full on. We're taking

34:51

over the city and hold on. We

34:54

tried to be nice, now it's, we

34:56

gotta do what we came here to do. And that's

34:58

where we just started going through. We

35:00

didn't even allow the idea

35:03

of what this city is gonna look like

35:06

after the fact influence how

35:08

we fought. And

35:10

what I mean by that is, if you

35:12

needed to put a tank main gun round into a building, We put

35:15

a tank main gun round into the building. You

35:18

know, if we needed to blow down trees

35:20

to clear our fields of fire, we blew down

35:23

trees to clear our fields

35:23

of fire. Every

35:25

day it was kicking in doors, house

35:28

to house, clearing operations, sometimes with

35:30

fights and a lot of times it would be the

35:32

house next door would have some

35:34

bad guys in it and then the Marines would assault towards

35:37

that house and the bad guys

35:39

would pack up and move on down the block some. You

35:41

know, it was kind of like chasing

35:43

a ghost almost.

35:46

So, yeah, we were in the fight.

35:48

We had the enemy on their heels. For more

35:50

than a week, the men of Echo Company and

35:52

about 3,000 other Marines pushed

35:54

into of Fallujah, dense neighborhoods

35:57

of concrete buildings normally housing 280

36:00

80,000 people. The U.S.

36:02

military says some insurgents are using

36:04

children to spot targets for them and

36:06

deliberately firing from heavily populated

36:09

areas inside Fallujah. The Al Jazeera

36:11

TV network sends out brutal

36:13

images of hospitals crowded with

36:15

dead and wounded, some of them

36:18

women and children. Other networks

36:20

run the footage too. Hospitals are

36:22

full and doctors say they're running out of

36:24

medical supplies. Iraqis claim

36:27

hundreds of civilians have been killed or wounded

36:29

in the last

36:30

four days. It's too dangerous

36:32

to bury the dead.

36:34

Iraqi politicians threaten to resign

36:36

if the Americans don't stop the assault.

36:39

That would be a disaster because the Americans

36:41

are just about to hand responsibility

36:43

for governing the country over

36:46

to their Iraqi allies. So

36:49

the White House orders the Marines to

36:51

stop. We've been going and going for about a week,

36:54

and we don't stop to cease fire. What?

36:56

Yeah, it's ceasefire. We don't have much forward

36:58

anymore? No, we can't. Okay,

37:02

fine, ceasefire.

37:06

And just to be clear, you

37:09

know, we talk about a ceasefire. Ceasefire

37:11

was in effect for US forces, but

37:14

the insurgents didn't have that

37:16

same order. And so we were in

37:19

gunfights on a daily basis

37:22

throughout. Well,

37:24

the running joke was that there was There was a pause in combat

37:26

operations and eventually the enemy guys had agreed

37:28

that they were going to turn their weapons in and stop fighting. It

37:31

was just that the joke was that they were going to turn in all their

37:33

ammo first because they never stopped. They never

37:35

paused. They just kept shooting at us all the damn time.

37:37

We

37:42

get to a schoolhouse.

37:45

We stopped there. And

37:48

now we're in the schoolhouse. That's

37:50

when CNN got embedded with us. with us. Tomás

37:53

Zetslick from CNN. kind

38:00

of sticking out from the line

38:02

of the houses which the

38:04

Marines occupied behind them. Now, Marines

38:06

are quick to tell you. In combat,

38:08

they move, shoot, and communicate. But

38:11

now, they're forced to hunker

38:14

down at this schoolhouse. Think

38:16

of, like, a rectangular-shaped

38:19

building, and there's an open courtyard, so

38:21

there wasn't no roof over that

38:23

area. I know we were digging in for the long

38:25

haul because they had me dig a shitter.

38:28

And then we, you know, sandbags

38:30

around the windows, like typical sandbags

38:32

around the end, you choose. So we were just kind

38:35

of like, hey, man, let's block this up

38:37

just in case. Like, you know,

38:39

mortars will be launched, we knew mortars

38:42

will be launched. So go

38:46

forward a couple of days. Tell me about the 12th. I

38:50

mean, it started as a normal

38:52

day. We like, everybody wakes up,

38:54

we're smoking and joking. And

38:57

then- We have

38:59

our first watch

39:00

in the morning, my team. So

39:02

we got worried that we were gonna get attacked that night, so I'm

39:04

like, okay. I still got a very sporadic

39:08

confide going on. And

39:11

at one point, and

39:12

it was already April 12, the

39:15

school was hit by a RPG. But

39:19

the RPG hit the corner of the school.

39:22

It shook the whole school, it shook, you know, it made

39:24

a bit noise. So

39:26

that morning was

39:31

the first time I remember getting blown

39:33

up. I was in a window in that schoolhouse,

39:37

bent over to pick something up, set back up and some

39:39

asshole shot an RPG at the window. Ranged

39:44

my bell pretty good.

39:47

They wouldn't let me sleep for like 12 hours.

39:52

Robert came off host and this kid, instead of sleeping,

39:56

He sat there for

39:59

eight hours. and just stared at me,

40:01

making sure I was, I mean literally just sat there staring at

40:03

me, smoking cigarettes, making sure I was okay. The

40:07

Robert he's talking about? That's

40:10

Robert Zuhrehide. He'd be dead by

40:12

nightfall.

40:24

Zurheid was the nicest person

40:27

I've ever met in my life. I

40:31

don't know how he became a United States

40:33

Marine. He

40:37

was honestly the nicest person I've

40:39

ever met my fucking life. Like the

40:41

dude just had a heart of gold.

40:46

Unless you played cards and he cheated like

40:48

crazy. And

40:51

not that good either. That

40:55

shit was annoying.

40:59

But what

41:01

do you call it? Sorry, it was funny, man. And he was

41:03

like, nothing you've ever met in your life. This dude

41:05

around a bunch of Marines, damn well

41:07

knowing what the reaction would be, would

41:09

put on Backstreet Boys and do

41:12

like a choreographed, practiced fucking

41:14

dance that you would expect

41:16

like the Backstreet Boys to do.

41:23

So after like one hour, two hours, I

41:25

don't remember exactly one hour, two hours in the

41:27

school, we went back to those positions.

41:31

Then I had a discussion with the

41:33

NBC guys and I told them, listen, let's

41:35

split up.

41:37

I thought that, you know, like, because I think that,

41:39

you know, if something's going to happen tonight or

41:42

anytime, you know, it's going to happen in that school. So

41:44

I would like to be there. He does a quick

41:46

interview with the company commander around 5

41:49

p.m. What are

41:51

the biggest challenges your men are facing

41:53

here in Fallujah today? That's an easy one. challenges

41:56

we're facing right now are just

41:58

my men want to go.

42:00

to the city and attack the enemy. That's what Marines do.

42:02

They're fired up. They want to go on the assault.

42:05

So I've got to hold back on the Marines

42:07

to keep them here, keep them

42:09

from doing that until we're given permission

42:11

to do so. And

42:13

of course I informed CNN

42:16

headquarters in Atlanta that I

42:18

will call them every two hours. And in between

42:20

I will be, I had like, I don't know, four or five

42:23

extra batteries, but I had no idea how

42:26

long I'm going to stay in Fallujah.

42:28

So I said, listen, I will not have

42:30

it switched on.

42:31

I will turn it on every two hours.

42:36

And I mean, right before we got to rest

42:38

and the incident happened, that I actually

42:41

ran to go get the MREs and everything

42:43

for us to eat. So, I mean, we ran out,

42:45

ran down the street, hit up HQ,

42:48

grabbed the MREs, came on back. I mean, just

42:50

a little simple resupply. And then we went

42:52

to stand too. And then, I

42:55

mean, yeah, right after that, when

42:58

everything went down.

42:59

It was getting

43:01

dark around after six, after I

43:03

make my phone call. It

43:06

was getting dark, and the school

43:08

was on the

43:11

top of a T intersection. There

43:14

were some cars

43:16

blown up. I saw some bodies in those

43:19

cars. And I

43:22

noticed there were guys on

43:24

that street running from

43:27

one

43:29

side of the street to another and they

43:31

were dropping tires.

43:35

We kept seeing

43:42

guys setting

43:44

up tires and they were doing they used to do this

43:46

to set of signal fires. What the

43:48

hell they trying to do with those A-tree?

43:51

So it would help them mortars. So

43:54

as they were setting up the tires and shit, our

43:56

guys were shooting.

46:00

And so while we're all bullshitting, it

46:02

was me, Doug Hyanga, Brad

46:05

Shooter, who was

46:07

it, Costello. I

46:11

think that was it. And Smith walks over and

46:13

he's like, yo doc, he's like, where's my black and mild

46:16

at? And I was like,

46:18

all right, man, let me go do that. I haven't done that

46:20

yet. So like, I'm walking away with

46:22

Shooter and we're bullshitting about,

46:25

we're like finishing up our conversation about Tahoe.

46:28

And I left him in the center

46:31

of the courtyard as we ended our conversation.

46:33

And I went to walk into the fucking casualty collection

46:35

point, like our, the corpsman's room.

46:39

And I had taken like not

46:41

even two complete steps. And

46:44

like, I remember seeing a flash in

46:46

a corner of my eye. And I looked

46:49

back and the next thing I know, I'm on

46:51

the ground waking up. Like I

46:53

blacked out, I got thrown across the room. I hit a wall.

46:56

I was wearing my helmet, but I hit the wall

46:58

head first. And,

47:01

uh, Fucking

47:05

Yeah, I came to is all fucking Sorry,

47:09

I'm fucking all down. I hit my weed. But,

47:20

uh, It

47:24

was like I could see nothing. You know,

47:26

it was just dust. And

47:28

all I could hear was ringing. It was extreme

47:31

ringing both my ears. And

47:33

then suddenly all of

47:35

my hearing came back, like the rush of a

47:37

fucking train. It was like, and

47:41

then I could hear everything. And

47:44

it was just screaming.

47:46

Like the worst screaming

47:48

you ever heard in your life.

47:57

A hit on taking cover. explosion.

48:00

What was it? We thought it

48:02

was an Iraqi rocket and they just got lucky with a

48:04

pinhole shot. One

48:06

round. And the chaos, the scramble

48:08

to help the wounded amid a massive

48:11

firefight. All hell broke

48:13

loose. There was

48:15

fire coming out of everywhere. There was

48:18

a lot of machine gun fire, a lot

48:20

of RPG fire. The building was shaken

48:23

by some of the grenades that hit the building

48:25

on the rockets. Here's the thing. This

48:27

explosion at the schoolhouse in Fallujah,

48:30

it should be in the history books as

48:32

the worst marine on marine friendly fire

48:34

incident in decades. But

48:37

it isn't. It's like it was scrubbed

48:39

from the record. They said he died. I

48:42

never knew his name. I can't find any document. He

48:46

didn't go with me. Somebody took him out.

48:49

No

48:49

one in this fucking investigation would see that. That's

48:51

a sin. As we continue digging

48:54

up parts of this story, we have to

48:56

wonder, why did the Marine Corps

48:58

keep all of this hidden for so long? Why

49:01

are we the ones revealing what really

49:03

happened

49:04

to the very men who were there? I mean,

49:07

your

49:07

instincts, I think, are

49:09

correct. And

49:11

those questions should be answered. But

49:14

the worst thing in the world to happen is to break that bond

49:16

of trust between us and the public, public, the mothers

49:19

and fathers who send

49:20

their sons to war.

49:36

Taking cover is created and reported by us,

49:38

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Rick Loomis, journalists who were in Fallucha

51:09

during the fighting in the spring of 2004 and

51:12

who shared their recordings with us, and

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also NPR members stationed KPBS

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and CNN.

51:19

And finally, thanks to the men who shared their

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stories with us, in addition to those

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named in the episode we heard from Jason

51:26

Doody, Tony Paz, Everett Watt,

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John Smith, Chris Covington, and

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Ben Wagner. We'll be hearing more

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