A CHANCE IN HELL

Ramadi, 2006 … the Marines and soldiers were taking heavy casualties in what had been dubbed “the most deadly city in the world.” The TV news seemed to have a daily ticker scrolling “Marine killed today in Ramadi,” every morning, and in August The Washington Post reported that Marine intelligence officer Colonel Peter Devlin submitted a classified intelligence report saying that the American military had lost control of Anbar province to al-Qaida.

But within a year, Ramadi and Anbar province were being hailed as “the” example of American success in stabilizing Iraq, and in “A Chance in Hell,” author Jim Michaels provides a gripping tale of how a few determined individuals turned the tide of battle.

Unlike Fallujah or An Nasiriyah, which were battles of a set duration, the battle for Ramadi was fought over a period of three years, with the lead units being a mix of I Marine Expeditionary Force, II MEF, Pennsylvania National Guard and regular Army. With so many units and so many individual heroic actions about which to write, Michaels made the decision to emphasize the individuals most responsible for the turnaround: Army COL Sean Mac­Farland, Sheik Sattar Abu-Risha and Major General Richard Zilmer, USMC.

Michaels is a superb storyteller and, as both a former Marine infantry officer and USA Today’s military editor, has the skills to present a story in a manner that is both accurate and readable. And what a story it is.

MacFarland was the commanding officer of the Army’s “Ready First” (First Brigade, First Armored Division) that arrived in Ramadi in May 2006, under the command of First Marine Division’s com­manding general, MajGen Richard Zilmer. The city was in chaos.

Ramadi was an economy of force mission in the eyes of the Bush administration, and as MEF intelligence officer Major Ben Connable quickly learned after work­ing with the Multi-National Force-I staff, “Most of us [had] bought into the line that commanders get what they ask for. That was a blatant lie.” The only direction coming from Washington was to turn responsibility for Iraqi security over to the Iraqis so American troops could come home; MajGen Zilmer and COL MacFarland were on their own.

MajGen Zilmer gave MacFarland huge autonomy. “Fix Ramadi,” he was told, “but don’t do a Fallujah.”

Also newly arrived in Ramadi was 1st Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment, led by Lieutenant Colonel William Jurney. Head­quartered at Hurricane Point in western Ramadi, Jurney’s Marines were responsible for security in the city, including the Government Center. An island of Marine defiance in central Ramadi as the insurgency swirled around it, the “Gov Center” was attacked daily as both the American public and the local population waited to see if the Marines and soldiers were going to regain control of the city. The locals hated the Americans, MacFarland and Jurney quickly discovered, but they feared al-Qaida—and the American military had shown itself incapable of protecting them.

One of the locals was Sheik Sattar Abu-Risha, a minor sheik from a minor tribe. But with the more important sheiks having fled to Jordan and his father and three of his four brothers killed by insurgents, Sattar was quietly cultivating a relationship with the Americans in order to gain revenge. MajGen Zilmer and MacFarland understood the tribes were the key to Anbar, so with Zilmer’s approval, MacFarland and his staff began to cooperate with Sattar and his new group, the Anbar Awakening.

Those readers expecting a Marine-centric view of Ramadi may be disappointed; Ramadi was not a Marine-exclusive operation, and Michaels takes pains to portray this. But for all readers, and especially those many Marines who fought from OP VA, OP Hawk and 17th Street, “A Chance in Hell” is a most interesting story of how a few entrepreneurial officers and a charismatic sheik developed the strategy that took back Ramadi and was adopted by General David Petraeus as the backbone of his “surge” strategy.

A CHANCE IN HELL: The Men Who Triumphed Over Iraq’s Deadliest City and Turned the Tide of War.

By Jim Michaels.

Published by St. Martin’s Press.

272 pages.

Stock #0312587465.

$23.40 MCA Members. $25.99 Regular
Price.