Sunrise Over Fallujah

Victor gets transferred out of the unit. His injury has left him with only two fingers on one of his hands. The rest of the Civil Affairs unit is told that no one is allowed to go outside of the Green Zone in groups of less than seven and that when they do, they have to use up-armored vehicles, vehicles that have been outfitted with metal. Captain Coles informs the soldiers that the tightened security is due to the fact that a group of Sunni Iraqis had been found executed with their hands tied behind their back. Birdy notes that deaths and executions like this have been happening more frequently in Baghdad, Fallujah and Mosul, and outside the major cities as well. The army is pushing Shiites into power and, with Saddam (who was Sunni) now ousted, all of the people he put into power, as well as the Sunni population, is being persecuted. The Khalid death squads, who are connected to the very same people being placed into power, are thought to be responsible for the execution-style murders. Birdy also mentions that the Iraqi police they were training were Shiites, and also had no problem killing Sunnis. 

Captain Coles and his squads are to provide security to a PSYOP major who’s interviewing a tribal leader named Hamid Faisal Al-Sadah. The leader’s men are being killed whenever they enter Fallujah and he would like assistance. At the same time, the army would like his help as well in working against those seeking to harm soldiers. While having dinner with the tribal leader, a lieutenant and the Civil Affairs unit soldiers are told that there is another war going on in Iraq, one that the U.S. has no control over. It’s a war between rival factions and it can outlive American involvement. When looking at the everyday reality of the war, Birdy realizes that this is the case. The army isn’t even sure who it’s fighting, and the rules of engagement change daily.

After dinner, the squads must head to a hospital in Fallujah, where they’re told to be extra careful as Fallujah is known as the body-bag capital of Iraq. At the hospital, they hear more fighting nearby and the squads are told to hunker down for the night. When Captain Coles informs the squads that they will move out on their own, Birdy runs to the restroom and sees two Iraqi mean attempting to rape Captain Miller. He shoots them both and, for the first time in the war, realizes that he has actually killed someone with a shadow of a doubt.

The three squads assigned to Captain Coles return to Baghdad and are told they are going to As Sayliyah for a change of pace. Word gets around and the squads learn that the place they’re headed to is a sort of R& R place where soldiers go to unwind. The general consensus, however, is that the place is the calm before a really bad storm.

In time, the soldiers learn that they have been chosen for a special mission that not even Captain Coles or Major Sessions know the details of. After days of relaxation and sitting around wondering what they’ll be tasked with, the soldiers are told that a number of children from a border tribe have been kidnapped, supposedly by a rival faction, and that the army has promised to get the kids back in exchange for detonators that are being smuggled into Iraq. Though the 422nd and Special Ops have tried to negotiate with the tribe, they have all been unsuccessful. Given the status of the Civil Affairs unit and their successes, they had been chosen to negotiate with the border tribe.

No one has a good feeling about the operation as everything is considered top secret and Birdy and his fellow squad members are going into a very dangerous area. The squads are flown to the site, Al Amarah and dropped down. They’re met by Colonel Roberts and his men. Birdy realizes that these soldiers are the very same “hoodlums” that Marla had been talking about earlier on. These soldiers had left before everyone else at Camp Doha and no one knew exactly they were doing.

Captain Coles and his squad members are informed by Roberts that the tribal leader probably has detonators that, if they can secure them, would allow the army to trace the detonators and see where they are coming from. Birdy and the others find out that Colonel Roberts actually has all of the children who were supposedly kidnapped; he took them as a way to negotiate with the tribes. Birdy and his crew simply need to tell the chief that they can get the children back by handing over one child, show them the money being offered, and then set up a time to meet to exchange the detonators for the rest of the children.

Though Captain Coles is able to eventually make a plan with the tribal leader to meet within an hour for the exchange, everyone is jumpy. Birdy and the others—Marla, Jonesy and Captain Miller—aren’t sure if they can trust the tribal leader or even Colonel Roberts. The colonel seems to play by his own rules, and he even admits that if he was the tribal leader, he’d kill them all and take the money and the children.

The squads arrive at the meeting place and hand over the rest of the children. They’re given three boxes with what appear to be detonators inside. As Birdy is putting the boxes into the Humvee, gunfire breaks out, as well as explosions. The Iraqi soldiers have told the children to get down and have opened fire on the squad. Captain Coles yells for them all to retreat back to the Humvees when Captain Miller spots one of the children, a blind boy, on the road, helpless. Before she’s able to run to his aid, Jonesy runs to the boy and shields him for the gunfire with his body. Birdy is hit in the leg and is helped into a Humvee by one of Roberts’s soldiers. They all manage to get back into the Humvees and race back to the base to prepare for an attack. 

The base is never attacked, but after limping around and trying to regain his composure, Birdy sets out to check on Jonesy and finds that he has died. Everyone is grief-stricken by Jonesy’s death. If he hadn’t have tried to save the blind boy, he might have made it out of the skirmish like the rest of them. Captain Miller is inconsolable and the attending Iraqi women cry out loud with her.

The squad is flown back to Baghdad where they find it hard to talk about how Jonesy died and what happened on the mission. They find that they’ve all been reassigned, some back to the States and others to other bases. Birdy receives a Purple Heart and will be sent to Germany to completely heal from his wound. The squad attends Jonesy’s memorial service where everyone, even Major Sessions, is overwhelmed by the loss of their comrade. After the service, everyone begins packing for departure, promising to stay in touch regardless of where they end up.

Birdy writes another letter to his Uncle Richie where he says that he wants to believe that he did something good while in Iraq. He wants to believe that he helped the people and that it all meant something. He wonders if a person has to be the hero type to deal with a situation like war. All of the death and misery are crammed inside Birdy’s head and he has to deal with the memories for the rest of his life. He thinks about the sacrifices of people like Jonesy and Pendleton, and through their deaths and sacrifice, Birdy knows that the war will never truly be lost Due to these selfless sacrifices, humanity wins out at the end of the day. Birdy ends by saying that he’s not sure of his relationship with God now, and that if he ever has kids, he doesn’t know if he can tell them about his experiences. Words, he says, aren’t enough. “Now I understand how light the words seem…but are there really enough words to make them understand?” (282).