What Was Black Sunday? | The Long Road Home

We got the intel brief we got about 30 days before we left. Said that you're going to the safest place in Iraq.

In April 2004, one year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq was controlled by a US-led transitional government. This period marked a relative lull in violence in the war. The soldiers stationed at Camp War Eagle expected an uneventful deployment.

When we deployed, you know, we knew that there had been a lot of enemy activity in Sadr City up to that point. You know, I think it was general knowledge that there hadn't been a shot fired in over six months. The division was tasked with peacekeeping and supporting local rebuilding efforts in a part of Baghdad known as Sadr City.

Initially, what we thought we were going to do is go in there and provide security to contractors who are going to come in and repair the damaged sewage system, repair the damaged freshwater system, repair the electrical systems. All the things that had deteriorated since the first Gulf War, because of the bombing that we did there and because of neglect by Saddam Hussein's government before we finally toppled it.

That was the mission that we thought we were going to do. Sadr City was increasingly controlled by Muqtada Al-Sadr, an influential religious activist and vocal opponent of foreign occupation in Iraq. On March 28, US coalition forces ordered the closure of Al-Sadr's newspaper, which escalated the tensions that would lead to violence.

When the ambush started, we were actually headed back in. We had been out escorting the sewage trucks throughout the day. As we moved in and moved down that road, a couple of rounds fired. And we stopped to look from where it was. And that's when it just kept ramping up. And there was more and more and more.

Within a few minutes, we knew exactly what was going on. We were involved in a close ambush, and we needed to push through. And that's when the fighting got real heavy.