Lion of Fallujah Falls in Battle

Zembiec Family Photo - Captain Doug Zembiec, April 2004

from the Baltimore Sun -

Marine Corps Major Douglas A. Zembiec, an Annapolis-area Marine known as the "Lion of Fallujah" was killed Friday in Iraq while commanding a raid on insurgent forces in Baghdad, military officials said Monday.

"He was the Marine that every Marine wanted to be next to, fighting the enemy," said Sgt. Maj. William Skiles, who had been Zembiec's first sergeant in Fallujah, where Zembiec's actions solidified his standing.

Zembiec's nickname grew from media interviews granted in Fallujah in 2004, where he was commander of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. Then a captain, he often said, "My men are fighting like lions"

During one firefight, his efforts to direct a tank to fire on a building housing insurgents seemed to go nowhere.

"Doug ran outside amid rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire and he jumped up on the tank," recalled Capt. Edward Solis, his first platoon commander.

Zembiec pointed with his rifle at where the tank should aim before running back to his position unscathed. The tank hit its target.

"The jaws of every Marine there had dropped. It was like, did he just do that? I am a God-fearing man, but he just sort of walked on water that day," Solis said.

And though people spoke of the fire in his eyes, Zembiec also was known for his wide smile and the unabashed tears he shed for his dead and wounded men, showing those who served under him that "you fight the good fight and you remember your fallen comrades," Solis said.

By Andrea F. Siegel
Baltimore Sun Reporter
Originally published May 14, 2007