![]() ![]() 10, 2004, was to clear a block of 12 buildings, where it was thought six or more insurgents had taken shelter. Bellavia was a squad leader in support of Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq. Bellavia currently resides in western New York and has three children. He was inducted into the New York State Veterans Hall of Fame in 2005. Bellavia currently is a successful business owner and a loyal Buffalo area sports fan.īellavia’s awards and decorations include the Medal of Honor, Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Army Achievement Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Army Good Conduct Medal with Bronze Clasp and two Loops, the National Defense Service Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal with Bronze Service Star, New York State’s Conspicuous Service Cross, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon with Numeral “2,” the Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon with Numeral “2,” the Presidential Unit Citation, Combat Infantryman Badge, Driver and Mechanics Badge and the NATO Medal. He also had several articles appear in national publications and made appearances as a guest on cable news networks. In 2007, he wrote a book, House to House, detailing his experiences in Fallujah. Their membership consisted of tens of thousands of veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.īellavia returned to Iraq as an embedded reporter in 20 where he covered the heavy fighting in Ramadi, Fallujah and Diyala Province. Throughout the year, his task force took part in the battles for Najaf, Mosul, Baqubah, Muqdadiyah and Fallujah.īellavia left the Army in August 2005 and cofounded Vets for Freedom, a veteran advocacy organization that sought to separate politics from the warriors who fight in the field. From February 2004 to February 2005, Bellavia and the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, were stationed in the Diyala Province along the Iranian border. ![]() In the summer of 2003, Bellavia’s unit deployed to Kosovo for nine months before receiving orders to deploy directly to Iraq to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. That sense of duty had been ingrained in Bellavia since he was a child by his grandfather, Joseph Brunacini, who served in the Army during the Normandy Campaign in World War II and earned a Bronze Star for his valor. ![]() In 2001, Bellavia had to choose between changing his military occupational specialty, submitting a hardship discharge, or remaining as an infantryman and leaving his family for 36 months on an unaccompanied tour to Germany.Īfter the terror attacks on 9/11, Bellavia felt his country needed him and chose to stay and fight. After One Station Unit Training, the Army assigned Bellavia to the Syracuse Recruiting Battalion an assignment which allowed his infant son to receive the medical care he needed. The son of a successful dentist and the youngest of four boys, Bellavia grew up in western New York and attended Lyndonville Central High School and Houghton Academy.įollowing his high school graduation in 1994, Bellavia attended Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire, and the University at Buffalo, where he studied biology and theater before turning to the military.īellavia enlisted in the U.S. Behind him a vast trail of devastation marks the mission’s progress, as his fellow Phantom crews continue to wreak havoc with their heavy ordnance, the target area exploding in a series of mighty detonations.Staff Sgt. Robert Taylor’s powerful new painting shows Steve Ritchie, first into action, flying his lead F-4D Phantom through a hail of deadly enemy flak as he exits the target area after a typical FAST FAC mission on enemy installations in North Vietnam, 1972. The F-4 Phantom was the benchmark against which every fighter in the world came to be judged it was simply the best. It may have been the size of many World War II bombers but it could out-perform anything that crossed its path it was quicker, could turn faster, was better equipped with electronics, carried more ordnance than anything comparable, and it had an unbelievable rate of climb. The biggest, fastest, most powerful fighter of its day, the McDonnell Douglas Phantom was an awesome war machine that came to dominate aerial combat for over two decades. Robert Taylor's third and final follow-up to Phantom Strike and Phantom Showtime featuring the last ever US fighter Ace, Colonel Steve Ritchie. ![]()
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