On June 9, 2017, The Havok Journal published “Flags Over Ramadi,” a personal essay under Michael Penney’s byline. The editor’s note framed it as the story of one Marine who fought in Ramadi and his reaction to seeing the black flag of ISIS flying over the city. The Havok Journal ran it again on June 9, 2024.
What the essay covered
It opens at a post on the northern entry control point to Ramadi, behind an M240G machine gun. An Iraqi police officer fires warning shots at an oncoming car. As Michael leans out to see what is happening, a sniper’s round punches a hole in the sandbag next to his head.
Two weeks into my first deployment I had experienced my first close call in combat….it would not be my last.
Michael Penney, “Flags Over Ramadi”
From there the essay turns to a flag. On the day he graduated boot camp, a flag was flown over the U.S. Capitol, and his family gave it to him. He carried it in his ruck on every mission, training or patrol, through two deployments to Ramadi and a third to Kajaki/Sangin, Afghanistan.
He describes training with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines at 29 Palms, California, preparing for “nothing but Ramadi,” and learning to look at the fight from the enemy’s side by “turning the map around.” In 2005 his team was sent to the government center in the heart of the city. He climbed a bullet-riddled staircase to the roof and ran his flag up the pole.
Raising that flag was a simple gesture but it meant so much to me and the Marines with whom I was serving.
Michael Penney, “Flags Over Ramadi”
The other flag
The essay then faces the black flag that later flew over Ramadi. He condemns ISIS’s cruelty, but writes that he did not take the city’s fall personally. His mission as an infantryman had been to remove Saddam’s regime. He says he is not an expert on geopolitics. What he does now is help train the people still serving. He tells readers not to ask his opinion of the new conflict, but to ask how to prepare the next generation of warriors.
Because other wars will be fought and other flags will be flown over Ramadi.
Michael Penney, “Flags Over Ramadi”
Looking back
This is one of the few pieces where Michael writes about Ramadi in his own words and in detail. The flag, the rooftop and the near miss are the kind of ground truth that later went into his speaking and his writing about service.
This post is part of the From the Archive series, which collects Michael’s past media appearances in one place. See the full media archive.
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