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Third got busy at 3:00 a.m. on November 8, which was called “D+1,” when it moved into its attack positions on the north edge of the city. The 3/1’s first mission was to exploit a breach in the fortified line separating the combatants that Marine and Army engineers intended to blow the next morning.
    In front of them all were Army M1A1 Abrams heavy tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles (BAFVs) from the 2d of the 7th Cavalry, better known as the “Ghost Battalion.” The proud 2/7 Cav within the 1st Cavalry Division dates to the Indian Wars in the 1870s. The Ghosts were assigned to provide an armored shield for the Marines to maneuver behind when they entered the fortified city. The 62-ton M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks and 25-ton M2A3 Armored Fighting Vehicles filled with Army cavalrymen were both far more powerful than anything the Marines had within the battalion. The Abrams 120mm main gun was an irresistible force and the Bradley 25mm chain gun devoured soft targets as though they were cotton candy. Initially the armored vehicles staged behind 3/1’s position where they set up their Tactical Operations Center (TOC). Until the fight commenced they were encamped about a mile north of Fallujah proper. They would move ahead of the Marines November 9 when the main attack commenced.
    3/1’s long-anticipated attack began on the ninth, a few hours after Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi gave the green light and the Marines and soldiers were finally unleashed. At the first sound of the guns the insurgents seemed eager to fight. They used the unexpected six-month political respite to turn Fallujah’s 140,000 or so stout concrete buildings into death-filledfortresses. Armed with time and emboldened by the false peace, the insurgents were laying the fiercest battleground United States Marines would struggle over since their epic fight for Hue.
    For once the weather was not a factor, although at night the Marines were putting on everything they could wear to keep warm. Temperatures were hovering between the upper 30s and low 40s after the sun went down. In the daytime temperatures rose into the 80s. For the encumbered Marines it was hot enough but not as stultifying as it would have been at the height of summer. Luckily the sky was clear and visibility was generally good. At night the stars brightened the sky and allowed the men using night vision goggles to clearly see when the enemy moved. As the battle progressed smoke, clouds, and billowing dust would become a problem, but that was still in the future.
    The Marines and soldiers in Fallujah fought 24 hours a day clearing the insurgents from the city house by house and hole by hole. When they took heavy fire from a house or strongpoint, the Marines would call for tank support. The tankers in the 7th Cav were glad to oblige, opening up on the house with their 120mm main gun or their .50-caliber machine guns, literally knocking it to the ground. After a few minutes of suppressive fire the Marines would go into the problem building and clear it. There was rarely anyone left alive at that point. Unfortunately there weren’t enough tanks to go around and the Marines were often forced to dig the enemy out with their personal weapons and guts. The fight would last until December 6 when the last insurgent had either died or, rarely, surrendered.
    From that battle forth First Sergeant Kasal’s life would never again be the same.

CHAPTER 3

GROWING UP
IN AFTON
    Brad Kasal was born to Gerald and Myrna Kasal in Marengo, Iowa, on a cold February day in 1966. There were three boys already in the clan when Brad arrived, and after a long drought, a fifth son would be born. Not too long after Brad’s birth, the family moved from that small farming community west of Cedar Rapids to Afton in southwest Iowa.
    Afton is a timeworn village of about 900 in northern Union County, a farming region where good brown soil competes with clay, rocks, scrub, and