Original Moto Fallujah Video

I remember watching this video on a weekend pass from the School of Infantry. At the time, I didn't know which unit I'd be headed to or that I'd end up in Afghanistan twice during my four years.I didn't even know that my MOS would eventually be that of an Infantry Assaultman, or that I'd someday shoot rockets in combat. But I did know that I was excited to be a grunt.I remember one weekend, after checking out with the duty and traveling 45 minutes by shuttle bus, I logged on to a shared computer in Oceanside, California and watched this motivational video about the 3/1 Marines in Fallujah, Iraq.This video was filmed in the days before people made full-time livings on Instagram, before platoon commanders had YouTube channels filmed in 1080p, when it was just a Combat Camera Marine or an enterprising grunt with a digital camera taking footage between firefights.The style of the video evokes excitement and thrilling danger of combat without showing the consequences of war: lots of close-quarters battle, lots of explosions, lots of machine guns shooting at distant targets.[caption id="attachment_8486" align="aligncenter" width="900"]

The Marines of Kilo Company 3rd Battalion 1st Marines fight through their piece of Fallujah during the Nov. 2004 assault on the city. Source: DoD[/caption]It's precisely the kind of media young, impressionable Marine needed to get pumped up for a patrol or an upcoming deployment.Whether you were a grunt or not, chances are you watched this video somewhere on the internet. Or maybe a friend had it on a hard drive, stashed in a folder with the Iraq sniper and countless porn flicks.For me, videos like this make me remember the young, testosterone-filled 19-year old with a shaved head and Birth Control Goggles sleeping in tents in November in the hills of California, getting ready to to a live-fire range in the morning. Dirty hesco hooches in Afghanistan and ten Marines watching videos on one old laptop. Range 400. The pre-dawn stillness when you wake up right before Reveille in the field, snug in your sleeping bag, dreading the day's movement.I'm 26 now, but some days I feel like I'm 40, especially when I get up from my Target faux-leather chair after an hour or two of writing to grab a cup of coffee and find myself walking like an old man. The infantry does that to you.I watch this video and imagine throwing my plate carrier over my cammies, pulling the velcro cummerbund together under the kangaroo flap, picking up my ILBE pack by the shoulder straps, throwing it over my head and adjusting so it's snug. Then I pick up my rifle, get into one of the two single-file lines on either side of the road, and continue humping up to the rifle range on Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

Yeah, I remember this video. Do you?https://youtu.be/3M5J_VYKo6s