![]() In the follow-on battle, as the Marines, soldiers, and coalition troops fought door to door throughout the city, supporting fires were perpetual, a cacophony of precisely delivered destruction. The bombs created breaching lanes for Marines of the 3d Battalion, 1st Marines to exploit later that day. The main assault into Fallujah in November 2004 ( Operation PHANTOM FURY/AL FAJR) commenced when eight GBU–31s, 2,000-pound joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs), dropped by Marine Fighter/Attack (All-Weather) Squadron 242 F/A–18Ds, smashed into a railroad-topped berm bordering Fallujah’s north side. This maximized the fantastic capability of aviation precision weapons and targeting technology, and in the case of Fallujah, made fixed-wing CAS an appropriate option for supporting fires, underscoring the utility and need for tactical aviation (TacAir) in the Marine Corps. The CAS plan was built on Marine Corps C2 basics-procedural control and unity of command, which were enhanced with a common map or grid reference graphic (GRG). Urban close air support ( CAS) successfully employed in Fallujah in 2004 highlights the capability of Marine Corps-style command and control (C2) of aviation. *** Operation Phantom Fury (Second Battle of Fallujah): Operation Phantom Fury was a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive in November and December 2004 (Credit: USMC) He earned his doctorate in history from Texas Tech University and is currently a historian at the Marine Corps History Division, Quantico. Maj Allison is a former Marine F–4 radar intercept officer. Copyright retained by the Marine Corps Gazette) ( Reprinted courtesy of the Marine Corps Gazette. He left Vietnam in 1975 and retired from the USAF in 1984.CAS: A CORE CONTRIBUTOR TO SUCCESSFUL INTEGRATED OPERATIONS IN FALLUJAH Flights under his leadership accounted for 5 enemy aircraft downed, and 1 damaged. That same year Madden led over 50 combat flights and he never lost a wingman. On 28 August 1972 he was part of the same mission when Steve Ritchie made Ace. ![]() It must have been his lucky area for on 28 August he scored his fifth and final victory in the same spot, thus becoming the USAF’s only pilot Ace of the Vietnam War and the last US pilot to acheive Ace status.įlying his first combat mission on 5 October 1965, leading fighter pilot John Madden flew three combat tours in Vietnam, notching up an impressive record of 3 kills and 1 damaged, flying F-4's. At the beginning of July he downed two MiG-21s west of Hanoi. His first kill came on when he downed a MiG-21 forty miles northwest of Hanoi, with his second a few weeks later just thirty miles south of the Chinese border. It was with the 555th TFS – the famed ‘Triple Nickel’ Squadron, that he achieved Ace status. ![]() He flew his first combat tour in Vietnam in 1968 on Fast FAC operations, before transferring to the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd TRW for his second tour. ![]() Brigadier General Richard "Steve" RITCHIEĪbout Brigadier General RICHARD "STEVE" RITCHIE:īorn in June 1942 during World War II, Steve Ritchie graduated and was commissioned from the USAF Academy in June 1964.Behind him a vast trail of devastation marks the mission’s progress, as his fellow Phantom crews continue to wreak havoc with their heavy ordnance, the target area exploding in a series of mighty detonations. Robert Taylor’s powerful new painting shows Steve Ritchie, first into action, flying his lead F-4D Phantom through a hail of deadly enemy flak as he exits the target area after a typical FAST FAC mission on enemy installations in North Vietnam, 1972. The F-4 Phantom was the benchmark against which every fighter in the world came to be judged it was simply the best. It may have been the size of many World War II bombers but it could out-perform anything that crossed its path it was quicker, could turn faster, was better equipped with electronics, carried more ordnance than anything comparable, and it had an unbelievable rate of climb. The biggest, fastest, most powerful fighter of its day, the McDonnell Douglas Phantom was an awesome war machine that came to dominate aerial combat for over two decades. Robert Taylor's third and final follow-up to Phantom Strike and Phantom Showtime featuring the last ever US fighter Ace, Colonel Steve Ritchie. ![]()
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