This is the inside account of the secret battle US Marines have been fighting against ISIS

Maj. David Palka had seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, but roughly 90% of the Marines under his command, tasked with setting up a remote fire base in northern Iraq in 2016, had only heard the stories. Their trial by fire in March 2016 came just hours after they landed on Army CH-47 helicopters under cover of darkness in Makhmur, Iraq. Getting off the helicopters at around 2 a.m., the Marines were in what was essentially open farmland with a large protective berm of dirt around their small perimeter. “B