Assigned to III Corps headquarters and based at Camp Victory in Baghdad from January 2004 through February 2005, Major Sean Tracy served as the joint fires and effects planner and was attached to the G3 plans shop. During his deployment, he was responsible for tying "all the lethal and non-lethal effects into all the corps plans. We were supposed to ensure," Tracy explained, "that the effects objectives for the corps were being represented in all our operations; and if an effects objective needed to change due to an operation, we took that effects objective, gave it to the effects assessment group, where they would make metrics and measurable effects so we could actually assess that objective." Involved most prominently in Operation Phantom Fury (Al Fajr) - the November 2004 combined-joint assault to retake the city of Fallujah - Tracy describes in great detail his role in this decisive urban battle, to include the shaping of targets in the days, weeks and months preceding the November fight, the information operations campaign waged, and the phenomenal “success story” that was close air support (CAS). He discusses the “386 total CAS strikes, 14,000 indirect fire rounds, seven different types of fixed-wing platforms including AC-130s” and says he’s “absolutely amazed there wasn’t any fratricide because it’s so restricted: a six-by-six box and there are thousands of troops inside this town.” Speaking at length on the joint aspects of this operation, Tracy calls what occurred with Phantom Fury a “very impressive model. The people who were involved with the model should take it out and teach people that this is the right way to do it.” Added Tracy: “I think this fight right here has set the standard for what we’re going to be doing for a long time to come. You can probably write the book on joint operations from this operation. Every service had a part of this thing.”

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited