Three Block War: Darkside

By Matt Zeigler

Three Block War: Darkside chronicles 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2004. ‘Chopped’ from the full-length Three Block War: U.S. Marines in Iraq, Darkside first recounts 3/4’s assault to Baghdad in 2003; which began with battles against Iraq’s 51st Mechanized Division at Basrah. The Three-four, also known as ‘Darkside,’ then engaged Republican Guard formations and asymmetric threats in central Iraq at Diwaniyah and al-Kut.
Before 1st Marine Division entered Baghdad, Darkside breached a minefield and braved artillery fire during the Diyala River crossing that allowed access to the capital. When the battalion, remaining under command of Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy, returned to Iraq in the spring of 2004, it was assigned to the Haditha Dam area. While it secured Haditha with small-unit patrols, 3/4 also saw combat action during the first battle of Fallujah in April 2004; and north of Fallujah at ‘Bad’ Kharma.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matt Zeigler
• Release date: Jul 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311590374

Matt Zeigler

Former Marine Matt Zeigler worked eight years as a writer and photojournalist in the newspaper industry before embarking on an author's path. During the 1990s he traveled extensively throughout the Southeast covering the greatest athletes of American sports. Zeigler, a 1993 graduate of Troy University, has also published College Football Schemes and Techniques; Wild Alabama; Wild Alabama: Winter Haven; Wild Alabama: The American Robin; Sports Shooter: A Photographer's Story; and 1990s NFL Flashback.

Book preview

Three Block War

Darkside

By Matt Zeigler

Copyright 2014

Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Violence Supremacy

Chapter 2 al-Kut

Chapter 3 Baghdad

Chapter 4 Anbar Province

About the Author

Chapter 1 Violence Supremacy

During 1st Marine Division’s assault to Baghdad in March-April 2003, three Regimental Combat Team’s led the way—RCT-1, RCT-5 and RCT-7. The 7th Regiment, which was based at Twentynine Palms, California, was comprised of 1/7 and 3/7, plus 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. Three-Four, mounted in amtracks and Hummers, had crossed the demilitarized zone Friday morning, March 21, with elements of 1st Tank Battalion, and eventually rolled through an abandoned military garrison in southern Iraq.

Unmanned Iraqi tanks and personnel carriers were dug-in with just their weapons exposed. But Marine tank crews took no chances as they rolled along, firing at anything that posed a threat. Some of the military hardware was manned. Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy, commander of 3/4, helped apprehend one tank crew himself, a job that was usually not performed by a field grade officer, but Lt. Col. McCoy was not a ‘usual’ leader. Lance Cpl. Garfield Shealy, who was riding with McCoy in a Humvee, first noticed the particularly menacing T-55. McCoy and Shealy