On November 7, 2004, a force of several thousand United States soldiers and Marines, supported by troops from the Iraqi Security Forces, gathered outside the city of Fallujah. The next day would the launch of Operation Phantom Fury, a battle that would rank among the toughest and fiercest in American military history.

Throughout early 2004, the Iraqi city of Fallujah, with a population of about 300,000, had become a hornet’s nest of terrorist and insurgent activity. Following an attempt to gain control of the city in April, coalition commanders agreed to let local forces, dubbed the “Fallujah Brigade,” provide security for the city in return for a promise to keep insurgent fighters out of Fallujah. That promise was quickly broken, as Fallujah once again descended into a bastion for insurgent operations, and the headquarters for Iraq’s most notorious terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqaqi.

By fall, the situation was untenable. Fallujah, the capital of the insurgency in Anbar province, had to be cleared. Marines and soldiers under the command of then-Major General Richard Natonski, descended on Fallujah to reclaim the city from the insurgents. What they faced was a tenacious enemy of several thousand terrorists, thugs, and foreign fighters who had months to fortify the city, booby-trapping buildings, and using materials provided by the United States for the local Iraqis against the coalition forces. Many of these jihadists were high on drugs—liquid adrenaline, amphetamines, and “Agent Buzz,” a hallucinogenic chemical weapon. They were impervious to pain, and had come to Fallujah for one purpose—to die, and to take the Americans with them.

Fighting house to house, the Americans and their Iraqi allies slowly and methodically cleared the city. By late-December, the city was a shambles, with wreckage of battle strewn throughout the streets. Still, insurgents, holed up in houses and waiting for an opportunity to strike, proved a deadly and dangerous foe. On December 23 of 2004, then-Corporal Jeremiah Workman, serving as a squad leader for the Mortar Platoon, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, saw that a group of his fellow Marines were trapped inside of a building, under fire from a force of enemy insurgents. Displaying a valor common among Marines of all generations, Cpl. Workman immediately organized his squad in an attempt to enter the building and rescue the trapped Marines. Despite facing enemy automatic weapons fire and a barrage of grenades, he laid down a base of fire, allowing the trapped Marines to escape.

After freeing the isolated Marines, Cpl. Workman regrouped the men, tended to the wounded, and proceeded to lead another assault into the building to eliminate the insurgents and extract the remaining Marines. Once again, he exposed himself to intense fire while providing cover to his men. Despite being wounded by shrapnel from an exploding grenade, Cpl. Workman would lead a third assault on the house, clearing the insurgents and extracting the Marines. In the end, 40 insurgents would fall—24 of them from Cpl. Workman’s fire. Three Marines were lost.

Jeremiah Workman would be awarded the Navy Cross for his actions on that day. But it is because of his selfless devotion to his fellow Marines in the heat of battle—the same devotion demonstrated by the Marines at Iwo Jima, Chosin Reservoir, and Hue City—that he has become a hero among the Marine Corps, and why he is the recipient of the 2007 Paul Ray Smith Award.