The Gold Star: Featuring the Lion of Fallujah
More than 7,000 American service members have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone since Sept. 11, 2001. More than 16,000 have died of other causes in that time. Gold Star families have borne the losses, and Defense Department officials want Americans – especially those serving in the department – to understand what the Gold Star lapel pin and Next of Kin lapel pins mean.
The Gold Star symbol began during World War I. At the start of the American involvement in 1917, families hung banners with blue stars representing family members in the services. If the service member died in combat, the family changed the blue star to gold. Jim Garamone DOD
Editor’s note: Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec served at Henderson Hall and was an individual augmentee deployed to Iraq with Multi-national Corps, Iraq in 2007 when he was killed during combat operations there. Known as the “Lion of Fallujah” for his actions under fire during the second Battle of Fallujah in 2004, Zembiec was killed in action during his fourth deployment to Iraq on May 11, 2007. As we approach the seventh anniversary of his death, we pause to reflect about his sacrifice – and that of all veterans who paid the ultimate sacrifice – in service.
By Julia LeDoux
Pentagram Staff Writer
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. – The Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec Pool is one of the most popular recreation and training spots on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
But who was Zembiec and how did he become known as the “Lion of Fallujah?”
Zembiec was born April 14, 1973 in Kealakekua, Hawaii. Following his graduation from high school in New Mexico, he attended the United States Naval Academy, where he was a two-time NCAA All-American wrestler. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps following his graduation in 1995. He served as a reconnaissance Marine and his force reconnaissance platoon was among the first special operations forces to enter Kosovo in 1999 during Operation Joint Guardian.
In 2000, Zembiec was transferred to the Amphibious Reconnaissance School in Fort Story, Va., where he served as the assistant officer in charge for two years. Following that, he attended the Expeditionary Warfare School at Quantico Marine Corps Base, graduating in May of 2003.
After graduating from EWS, Zembiec took command of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment in July of 2003. He earned the nickname “Lion of Fallujah” while leading his Marines in the first conventional ground assault into Fallujah, Iraq in 2004.
Zembiec was attached to a training team as an individual augment from Henderson Hall during his fourth and final deployment to Iraq in 2007, where he taught combat tactics to Iraqi soldiers as a Marine advisor with the Iraq Assistance Group, Multi-National Corps, Iraq. Zembiec’s tenacity under fire earned him the Silver Star posthumously in 2007.
Zembiec’s nickname grew from media interviews he 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,” Ripley said. Zembiec’s exhilaration in battle prompted others to use the moniker on him.
“He was the Lion of Fallujah. He was unstoppable,” Ripley said.
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 Captain 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.
Zembiec was killed May 11, 2007 when insurgent forces attacked his assault team during a patrol. According to his Silver Star citation, during the attack, Zembiec moved forward and directed his assault team to take cover, while he remained in an exposed but tactically critical position in order to provide leadership and direct suppressive fire onto the enemy position. That caused Zembiec to receive the brunt of the enemy’s fire. He succumbed to his wounds and was interred in grave number 8621, Section 60, in Arlington National Cemetery May 16, 2007. He was survived by his wife, daughter, parents and brother.
“Doug was more than just a brave man,” Anderson said. “He was a teacher, mentor and an inspiration.”
Across from the plaque is a mural of Zembiec giving orders to his men over a radio headset as they prepared for a patrol during the first battle of Fallujah in 2004. Next to Zembiec’s photo, a watchful lion rests in the corner.
Zembiec, 34, received a Bronze Star with a V for valor for leading an infantry company in repeated assaults against insurgents in the Sunni Triangle city of Fallouja in 2004.
Another Gold Star: Major Brent Taylor was on his second term as the mayor of North Ogden when he took an unprecedented year of absence to serve his fourth deployment in Afghanistan. In November of 2018, Major Taylor was killed in an insider attack in Kabul. His story updated 2020 at the link