LtCol Doug Bahrns, USMC, Iraq, Afghanistan, Battle of Fallujah

Doug Bahrns knew he wanted to be a U.S. Marine Corps officer when he finished high school a couple of years before 9/11. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer. After going to officer’s training at Quantico, Bahrns was assigned command of 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines in 2003. By 2004 they were in Iraq, and a few months later they would be involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the war – the Second Battle of Fallujah.

In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Bahrns discusses the ramping up to the battle, how he got orders to get his men ready for the fight in the middle of the night, and what he went over in his mind just before the battle began.

Bahrns describes the successful push to the mayor’s complex, the vicious fighting to move out from there, and the brutal house-to-house fighting that followed. He explains the very effective method of clearing houses, how those gains stayed secured, and how his Marines escaped from a very precarious situation at a place they called “The Alamo.”

Finally, Bahrns details the devastating loss of Cpl. Bradley Faircloth in late November 2004 and how Faircloth’s death still weighs on him today.

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Veterans Chronicles