Official Medal of Honor Citation:
Staff Sergeant David G. Bellavia distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on November 10, 2004, while serving as a squad leader in support of Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq. While clearing a house, a squad from SSG Bellavia’s platoon became trapped within a room by intense enemy fire coming from a fortified position under the stairs leading to the second floor. Recognizing the immediate severity of the situation, and with disregard for his own safety, SSG Bellavia retrieved an automatic weapon and entered the doorway of the house to engage the insurgents. With enemy rounds impacting around him, SSG Bellavia fired at the enemy position at a cyclic rate, providing covering fire that allowed the squad to break contact and exit the house. A Bradley Fighting Vehicle was brought forward to suppress the enemy; however, due to high walls surrounding the house, it could not fire directly at the enemy position. SSG Bellavia then re-entered the house and again came under intense enemy fire. He observed an enemy insurgent preparing to launch a rocket-propelled grenade at his platoon. Recognizing the grave danger the grenade posed to his fellow soldiers, SSG Bellavia assaulted the enemy position, killing one insurgent and wounding another who ran to a different part of the house. SSG Bellavia, realizing he had an un-cleared, darkened room to his back, moved to clear it. As he entered, an insurgent came down the stairs firing at him. Simultaneously, the previously wounded insurgent reemerged and engaged SSG Bellavia. SSG Bellavia, entering further into the darkened room, returned fire and eliminated both insurgents. SSG Bellavia then received enemy fire from another insurgent emerging from a closet in the darkened room. Exchanging gunfire, SSG Bellavia pursued the enemy up the stairs and eliminated him. Now on the second floor, SSG Bellavia moved to a door that opened onto the roof. At this point, a fifth insurgent leapt from the third floor roof onto the second floor roof. SSG Bellavia engaged the insurgent through a window, wounding him in the back and legs, and caused him to fall off the roof. Acting on instinct to save the members of his platoon from an imminent threat, SSG Bellavia ultimately cleared an entire enemy-filled house, destroyed four insurgents, and badly wounded a fifth. SSG Bellavia’s bravery, complete disregard for his own safety, and unselfish and courageous actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States.
US Army Staff Sergeant David G Bellavia was born November 10, 1975 in Buffalo, NY. After enlisting in the army in 1999 and serving in Kosovo, he deployed to Iraq. He was awarded the Medal of Honor on June 25th, 2019 by President Donald J Trump for his immense bravery and persistence during the Second Battle of Fallujah. These actions took place on the exact date of his 29th birthday in 2003: November 10th. It was the fourth day of this pinnacle operation. His heroic actions as a commanding Staff Sergeant to the 3rd Platoon of Alpha Company originally awarded him a Silver Star, which was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2019. SSG Bellavia’s Medal-earning action was filmed in journalist Michael Ware’s 2015 documentary Only the Dead, and early re-enactments of his scene are available on a 2006 show Shootout! and a November 22, 2004 Time magazine story “Into the Hot Zone”.
The Second Battle of Fallujah lasted from November 7, 2004 – December 23, 2004 and has been called one of the most destructive and bloody battles not only in Iraq but since the Vietnam war as well. This operation, codenamed as Operation Phantom Fury, also commands recognition for being the first major engagement of the Iraq War fought solely against insurgents.
At this point in the war, anywhere from several hundred to a few thousand insurgents had taken control of Fallujah, nearby the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. They had elaborately armed themselves and the city infrastructure with an array of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), booby traps, fortified defenses and blocked roads. The various insurgent groups had also banded together to oppose the U.S.’s planned invasion of Fallujah, which speaks volumes to the sort of fervor to be faced.
A combination of some Iraqi forces, United Kingdom forces, and leadership by U.S. Marine, Army, and Air Forces had begun the Second Battle of Fallujah. Using a perimeter setup for controlled entry and exit, this operation was another attempt to eliminate insurgents who were thought to be responsible for the 2004 Fallujah ambush and mutilation of four private U.S. military contractors.
On November 10th, SSG Bellavia had been assigned a mission by his Company Commander that consisted of clearing a selection of houses around Phase Line Fran (above in yellow, in red to the right) that were suspected of housing enemy insurgents. One of SSG Bellavia’s squads commenced their search, not encountering any insurgents until reaching the 10th house.
While inside this 10th residence, SSG Bellavia realized that the alcove his squad was occupying was home to an ambush. In fact, enemy insurgents had set up a fortified bunker under a set of stairs and were firing at point-blank range. SSG Bellavia’s squad was trapped and caught off guard after the numerous vacant residences they had previously searched. To make matters worse, SSG Bellavia at that moment realized his rifle magazine had been damaged. Switching weapons mid-encounter with the ambush to a Squad Autotomatic Weapon, and having seen “the unified confidence across [the enemy insurgents’] faces, SSG Bellavia retreats out of the house while firing protective rounds for his squad.
Even though this moment in actuality marks the start of his heroic encounter, SSG Bellavia recalls this temporary break of contact with the insurgents as “one of the lowest moments of [his] life”, since he knows that being in that room was his shot with the enemy that the mission had called for. But this was not at all the end of the mission for SSG Bellavia. He gathered himself outside and wanted to carry on.
After a discouraging attempt to further suppress the enemy by a Bradley Fighting Vehicle–usually used for personnel carrying and tank-damaging–SSG Bellavia re-entered and started creeping through the occupied house alone. The insurgents of the stairway bunker now scattered, SSG Bellavia identifies an insurgent in the process of firing a rocket-powered grenade toward his platoon, who were back outside the house’s walls. After this glimpse of the insurgent, SSG Bellavia turns blindly around an interior wall and eliminates him. At this moment, SSG Bellavia wounds another insurgent who then runs into another part of the house adjacent to the kitchen.
SSG Bellavia describes in his official recount video that a major part of the difficulty involved with this operation came from the surrounding groundwater. He describes it, even fifteen years later, with visible disgust on his face. He recalls the ankle-deep water having a penetrating smell that was “fishy, toxic, and set with a real slime to it”. In particular, this water had filled the ground floor of the house and made for horrible footing while trying to maneuver and tackle enemies simultaneously.
With this putrid smell as SSG Bellavia’s self-described “only sense left”, he moves to clear another room in the house. After sending an update to his outside squadron through a hand-held radio, he tosses it to the side in order to keep the insurgents unaware of his true position. As if on queue, the previously wounded insurgent who had run adjacent to the kitchen reappears in SSG Bellavia’s line of sight. Indeed, he did not have an idea where SSG Bellavia was located, and this resulted in his swift elimination.
The next insurgent to meet demise by the skillful hand of SSG Bellavia suddenly advanced down from the second-story stairs. SSG Bellavia watched through a two-inch gap between a wall and doorframe, and through that same gap was able to eliminate the man without incurring any injuries to himself. Three enemy insurgents down.
The gallant episode wasn’t yet over, though. More insurgents still occupied the house, and SSG Bellavia was about to face ambush for the second time in just minutes. Immediately after the previous insurgent was eliminated, a new insurgent exploded out of a nearby bedroom closet, causing the structure to fall forward as the man climbed out and ran, “juicing a snub-nosed AK-47” directly at SSG Bellavia. The insurgent tripped on a floor mattress and SSG Bellavia was able to wound him with multiple rounds of fire before the man ran up the stairs to the second floor.
Hot on the pursuit, SSG Bellavia encounters the dreaded groundwater; he trips and falls face-first into it. In some sort of twisted irony, he then notices bullets from the wounded and ascending insurgent hitting where he had previously stood before falling. SSG Bellavia regains his footing. Then he hears conversation. The combination of an unknown language and an understanding that there were now at least two more insurgents to eliminate pushed SSG Bellavia to follow upstairs. Relentless in pursuit, he recounts his next difficult moments of encounter with the wounded insurgent on floor two with tears in his eyes: “Then I just did my best to pacify that guy… and I did. And it took everything to do it”.
SSG Bellavia’s additional accounts of his final chaotic moments of encounter with that 4th insurgent are at minute 35:12 of this 2019 Military Dispatch podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7x3owPki5baTMDt8aoFKYe?si=WPo8zrqjQreNp4QHB3_xiw
At this point, having endured four separate successful eliminations through the house, and still on his own, SSG Bellavia explains how desperately he needed a break. Even though there still was the receiver of the unknown conversation to locate and eliminate, the culminating events at the time weighed down on SSG Bellavia. He recalls how he “walked outside and just needed a cigarette, which made no sense whatsoever, but [he] was just really stressed out”. With the thought that his squad would come up and be able to help him finish off the last known insurgent, he does pull out that cigarette and lights it. Finally, in an almost unbelievable moment, his brief recess is abruptly cut short.
The receiver of conversation had jumped down, seemingly out of nowhere, from the third-floor roof onto the second-floor roof where SSG Bellavia was then standing adjacent to an onlooking window. On all counts, he insists that this insurgent had the advantage: SSG Bellavia’s weapon was turned away from him, he was smoking a cigarette, didn’t have a helmet on, was beaten up from minor physical wounds and from mental exhaustion from the previous events, and was even plagued by burning eyes. Yet still, SSG Bellavia was able to fire rounds into the insurgent’s back and legs, severely damaging him and causing his fall off the second-floor roof.
All five insurgents had been eliminated. Finally finished clearing the crowded and putrid water-filled house of five enemy insurgents on his own, SSG Bellavia’s platoon mission was completed. When met outside, the platoon’s other Staff Sergeant said, “That’s a good job, dude. You’re a better man than me.” To that, Bellavia shook his head. “No, no, no,” he muttered. When his Company Commander calls an airstrike-clearing operation, the day moves on. Indeed, this intense series of encounters was just part of SSG Bellavia’s “many crazy days we had while in Fallujah”.
Most of the heavy fighting in the Second Battle of Fallujah subsided by November 16th, and remaining U.S.-led forces continued to work on eliminating residual pockets of insurgents until leaving the area in January of 2005.
SSG Bellavia is the first and only currently living recipient of the Medal of Honor for service in the Iraq War. His gallantry was a crucial part of the offensive that helped turn over a key Iraqi city away from the type of protracted war and gangs of damage-focused insurgents that the U.S. had been slowly learning how to fight. One day much later in time, insurgents in the region would be pushed down for the foreseeable future and the newly-established Iraqi government would prove able to stand on its own two feet: showing that even with a multitude of challenging setbacks, SSG Bellavia’s bravery and solitary persistence paid off.
SSG Bellavia was very humble throughout the recollection of his actions. Perhaps the following quote of his, told by President Trump at his Medal of Honor ceremony, sheds light into SSG Bellavia’s reasoning:“we don’t fight for awards or recognition; we fight for love of our country, our homeland, our family, and our unit, and that’s stronger than anything the enemy has”.
Citation List:
“David G Bellavia: War on Terrorism (Iraq): U.S. Army: Medal of Honor Recipient.” Stories of Sacrifice, 2020, www.cmohs.org/recipients/david-g-bellavia.
Medal of Honor Society. David Bellavia Medal of Honor Presentation Ceremony, 24 Mar. 2021, vimeo.com/400332937?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=109555559.
Medal of Honor Society. David G. Bellavia, Medal of Honor Recipient: Values & Service, 25 Mar. 2021, vimeo.com/528830580?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=109555559.
Medal of Honor Society. David G. Bellavia, Medal of Honor Recipient, Recounts His Medal of Honor Action, 25 Mar. 2021, vimeo.com/528837964?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=109555559.
Camp, Richard D. Operation Phantom Fury: The Assault and Capture of Fallujah, Iraq. Zenith Press, 2009.
Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, 5 Oct. 2015, www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/articles/george-d-maziarz/staff-sergeant-david-bellavia.
Ware, Michael. “Into the Hot Zone.” TIME: Into the Hot Zone | Michael Ware, 22 Nov. 2004, mickware.com/Past/2004/files/b9f7a74a20a1ad51a40b0c24f90f5f8c-16.php.
Ware, Michael. “Medal of Honor nomination for SSG David Bellavia” TIME: Into the Hot Zone | Michael Ware, 22 Nov. 2004, mickware.com/Past/2004/files/b9f7a74a20a1ad51a40b0c24f90f5f8c-16.php.
Battle of Fallujah – Phantom Fury, 14 Nov. 2022, mca-marines.org/bsp/bsp-middleeast/second-fallujah/.
Marine Corps Association. Operation Phantom Fury: The Assault and Capture of Fallujah, Iraq: November 2004, Marine Corps Gazette & Leatherneck Magazine of the Marines, 2014.
Marine Corps Association. Fallujah: November-December 2004, U.S. Marines in battle. Timothy S. McWilliams, 2014.
Cross, Laura. “Battlefield Fallujah – Ep. 7. The Marine Corps Birthday (November 10, 2004).” Military Dispatch, Nov. 2019.
Burgess, Justin. “Best of the Best: David Bellavia and the Battle of Fallujah.” Army Branch News, 2 July 2021, taskandpurpose.com/news/best-of-the-best-david-bellavia-and-the-battle-of-fallujah/.
Swift, John. “Second Battle of Fallujah”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Jan. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Battle-of-Fallujah.
John Spencer, Jayson Geroux. Urban Warfare Case Study #6: First Battle of Fallujah, 28 Oct. 2022, mwi.usma.edu/urban-warfare-case-study-6-first-battle-of-fallujah/.
The Iraq War, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/timeline/iraq-war#:~:text=Battle%20for%20Fallujah,-U.S.%20marines%20blast&text=The%20urban%20fighting%20is%20successful,are%20also%20among%20the%20dead.
Iraq War – the Second Battle of Fallujah, 14 May 2023, blog.togetherweserved.com/2023/05/04/the-second-battle-of-fallujah/.
Ware, Michael, director. Only the Dead: How Far Would You Go to Understand the True Nature of War. 2015.