Sunrise Over Fallujah

Another instance of civilians mistakenly being killed is reported at a village and the soldiers from Birdy’s Civil Affairs unit are sent to try and put a human face on whole situation. It’s been reported that children may have been injured in the attack and the squads must try to help out as much as possible. Though the 422nd Civil Affairs Brigade is already working at the village to rebuild damaged water pumps, the villagers don’t trust the army there, and Captain Miller talks to a few women to try and gain their trust.

One of the Iraqi women has studied in Seattle and speaks English. She invites Captain Miller and a few of the soldiers into her home and explains what happened during the attack. As it turns out, the boys and men in the village were unsure if they should fight against the Americans or not. In the end, they decided to wait and see what would happen when the Americans came. Though the townsmen did not want to fight, a group of Ba’athists, fighters from Saddam’s party, arrived in town and told the men that they must report to Baghdad to see what they should do. The men were loaded into a van and were getting ready to leave when one of the Iraqi soldiers fired at a passing plane.