NEED TO KNOW

When Mike Tabura shipped off to Iraq in 2004 with the Marines, he called his wife to announce his safe arrival. She told him: “I’m pregnant!”

Tabura was 26 and soon deployed for Operation Phantom Fury in the bloody second battle of Fallujah

"“Having a pregnant wife added another stressor. We had to be hypervigilant,” he says. “I needed to be on top of my game"

Editor’s note: For Veterans Day, PEOPLE is publishing a series of stories looking back at the service members and families affected by the two battles of Fallujah , in Iraq, in 2004 — combined, they marked some of the bloodiest fights in recent American history.

When Mike Tabura shipped off to Iraq in 2004 to serve with the Marines, he called his wife, Noemi, to announce his safe arrival.

Instead, she interrupted

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