Jan Bender remembers the moment as if it were yesterday. Taking cover from insurgents, his fireteam had just assembled in the dark in front of a house in Fallujah, Iraq, when the Marines were ...

FALLUJAH, IRAQ — In 2004 and 2005, the Iraqi city of Fallujah was a killing field. Al Qaeda dominated the streets. Insurgent snipers sought to pick off U.S. Marines on patrol. Some of the fiercest ...

When Mike Tabura shipped off to Iraq in 2004 with the Marines, he called his wife to announce his safe arrival. She told him: “I’m pregnant!” Tabura was 26 and soon deployed for Operation Phantom Fury ...

FALLUJAH, Iraq - In a narrow alley, Marines pinned down by a hail of guerrilla fire sent up red smoke in a cry for help. Tanks pounded shell after shell into houses, while troops on the city's edge ...

Marines say the restive Sunni Triangle, including Fallujah, is a particularly nettlesome environment for the development projects meant to win over Iraq's people. Following an aborted Marine attack in ...

Camp Lejeune, N.C. -- Tears and cheers marked the return this weekend of several hundred troops from a US Marines battalion that spent seven months in Iraq. Their duty included bloody missions in the ...

NPR — along with seven public radio stations around the country — is chronicling the lives of America's troops where they live. We're calling the project "Back at Base." This is the first installment ...

Editor’s note: For Veterans Day, PEOPLE is publishing a series of stories looking back at the service members and families affected by the two battles of Fallujah, in Iraq, in 2004 — combined, they ...