Attached to Task Force 2-2 Infantry during Operation Phantom Fury, Captain Chris Boggiano was the 2nd Platoon leader in the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Reconnaissance Troop and, in this November 2004 urban assault to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah, his unit played a key role. Employing the invaluable Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System (LRAS) to identify and then call artillery and air strikes against enemy targets throughout the first few days of the operation - and even before it kicked off as well - once his platoon got positioned on a highway overlooking the city, Boggiano said, "It was like shooting fish in a barrel as far as calling artillery on bad guys." Among the many leadership challenges he faced was a "crazy R&R setup" that had roughly half his platoon on leave when Phantom Fury commenced, requiring him to integrate a number of new additions. "I think by that point in our deployment to Iraq, though, everyone had enough experience at being flexible that transitions like that were relatively easy," Boggiano explained. "Plus, it didn't hurt that I had enough great NCOs in my platoon who were still there." In addition, he had to adapt to several different missions: "There wasn't any one point where we did so much of one thing that it was the predominant theme for our time in Fallujah. Part of the time we were completely mounted, part of the time we were completely dismounted, and part of the time we were dismounted with mounted support, so it was a little bit of everything." Finally, Boggiano candidly shares his frustrations during a point at which he felt like "no one was in charge" of Alpha Company, 2-2, recounts the ups and downs of working with Marines, and also laments the fact that "not enough recognition was pushed down to the soldier and NCO level" following the battle's successful conclusion.

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