Via The North County Times

Next month will mark five years since Operation Phantom Fury–the second battle for the Iraqi city of Fallujah that took place in November of 2004. It was and is the largest urban combat operation the U.S. military has engaged in since Vietnam.

Five years later, we remain in Iraq. Afghanistan is now America’s favorite war.  And, this week, the Marines Corps appears to be trying finally to put to rest the ghosts of Fallujah. Particularly, the case of the Marines of Kilo 3/1.

I wrote about this some time ago. Three Marines from that unit faced charges for executing prisoners during the opening hours of that battle. To date, two have been acquitted–Sgt. Jose Nazario in federal court, Sgt. Ryan Weemer before a court martial– and, as of Tuesday, the third, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty in an apparent deal to avoid murder charges–and a potential life sentence.

Nelson explained his actions that day, according to the North County Times:

“I entered a house with four individuals standing there with no weapons,” the 28-year-old former New Yorker told the judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred. “None made it back out alive, sir.”

When NCIS interviewed him in March of 2007, he provided a more detailed account of the scene in the house that day, which I wrote about in LA Weekly:

“That’s when Nazario starts gettin’ fuckin’ pissed,” Nelson says. “‘You said there were no weapons.’ And shit, he just cocked him,” Nelson continues as he recalls Nazario striking a prisoner. “BOW! Head bounced off the wall and shit. I was like, ‘Yo! What the fuck are you doin’?'”

Nelson steps back and, according to the interview, watches as Nazario kicks the man in the groin twice. Using a personal radio with an earpiece mounted inside his helmet, Nazario then reports that 3rd Squad has taken four prisoners and found weapons. The conversation occurs on a radio channel used only by squad leaders and their commanders, so the transmissions aren’t audible to the men in the room. Nelson watches as the sergeant’s expression changes.

“What the fuck, nigga? I know you was on the radio. What’d they say?” Nelson recalls saying.

Nazario makes contact with his radio again. “‘They said, ‘Are they dead yet? Because we don’t have all day.’”

Meanwhile, in his own interview with Fox, Carlisle recalls going back to the room, an office, where he and Prentice find the first rifle.

“That’s when I heard the first gunshot and that’s when I came out to see what had happened,” Carlisle says. He knows from the gun’s report that it is a 9 mm pistol. When he steps out of the office, he sees Weemer standing there with his pistol in his hand. “He went for my weapon,” Weemer says of one of the prisoners, according to Carlisle’s recollection.

Nelson describes a very different sequence of events: After receiving the radio order, Nazario pulls a prisoner from the ground and marches him to a kitchen.

“I heard the window shatter when he shot,” Nelson remembers. He walks over to look at the body; it’s of the oldest man in the group. “He shot him right in his fuckin’ eyeball,” Nelson says.

Nazario supposedly walks out of the kitchen livid: “Yo, I just did one. Now I’m not doin’ all this shit by myself,” Nelson recalls him saying. “So you’re gonna do one and Weemer’s gonna fuckin’ do one and I’m gonna do another one.”

Carlisle remembers appearing with Prentice in the middle of Nazario’s discussion with his men. As he comes onto the scene, Carlisle looks down to see the body of the old man lying in the kitchen, his head circled by a pool of blood, and pans over to the three remaining prisoners lined up in the living room. One of the Marines asks Prentice “if he wanted to participate in shooting one of [the prisoners],” Carlisle recalls. Prentice is still upset about Lance Corporal Segura’s death a few hours earlier and, Carlisle says, “he wanted to shoot one of them.” But Carlisle dissuades Prentice, telling him “that he didn’t want to do that.”

Carlisle and Prentice try to exit through the home’s front door. Another shot rings out. Confusion rolls through Carlisle’s mind. “I knew I needed to get out of there,” he remembers. He and Prentice turn back and walk past the prisoners in the living room; Carlisle glimpses the two survivors. “I do remember the individuals’ faces,” he tells Agent Fox. “They were, um, well, they’d just seen their buddy get shot and their faces wasn’t exactly, um . . . I mean, they were pretty somber.” Corporal Weemer meets Carlisle and Prentice and says, “We need to get out of here.” Before the men make it to the building’s back door, two more shots ring out.

Nelson’s recollection doesn’t match that version. He doesn’t recall Carlisle or Prentice being present, other than to drop off the AK-47s the two had discovered. The only men he remembers being in the room are himself, Nazario and Weemer. He tells Agent Fox that after Nazario executes the first prisoner, Nelson fears what will happen if he refuses Nazario’s order. Nazario gets in his face and Nelson pulls a prisoner aside. At this moment, each of the Marines — Weemer, Nazario and Nelson — controls a prisoner.

Nelson remembers what was going through his mind: “I was gonna wait to see if he was really serious about this shit.”

Nazario, according to Nelson, then shoots a prisoner at point-blank range with the muzzle pressed to his forehead. The man falls, but blood and brain matter pour across the floor. “I didn’t want this motherfucker’s brains and shit all on my boots,” Nelson recalls Nazario saying. “Hurry up,” he orders Weemer and Nelson.

Standing over his prisoner, who is kneeling in front of him, Weemer fires multiple shots from his pistol, according to Nelson. “He was just lettin’ it ring,” Nelson recalls. The prisoner crumples to the floor and rolls with the impact of the bullets.

“So, I’m like, well fuck it, you know, I guess,” Nelson tells Agent Fox. “That’s when I fuckin’ — I shot my guy.”

Somewhere between the acquittals of Nazario and Weemer and Nelson’s guilty plea lies the truth.  There may not be a lot of interest in exploring the paradox of Nelson’s confession of the killings with the denials of his squad mates.

But, the public is left with acknowledgement that at least four unarmed men were executed by American servicemen on the battlefield of Fallujah. Some may see this as an article of shame. Others may see this as a a regrettable (0r not so much) cost associated with urban combat operations.

It’s no doubt a tragedy for everyone involved–those who survived that battle and those that did not.