Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines at the Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Kelly:
One of our security cameras recorded the attack. You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to come to the conclusion about what was going on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley.
It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the recording shows a number of Iraqi police scattering some running right past the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.
For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines' weapons firing non-stop...the truck's windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the son-of-a-bitch who is trying to get past them.
The recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. Yale and Haerter never hesitated, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live.
The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty...into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight-for you.
Here is the full speech:
http://thebulletproofmonk.blogspot.com/2010/12/last-six-seconds.html
Such fine young men, bless 'em. Semper fi, carry on.
And yet Congress didn’t shut down a week for these two soldiers.
This makes me sick, that somehow people think it’s right to shut down Congress a week because a congressperson has a terrible thing happen to them.
Do the people’s work, have a moment of silence, then in honor of their recovering colleague, KEEP GOING ON and do the work you were sent there to do. We don’t sit around and mope and get grief counselor’s in and and get the pychiatrists in to talk with the children. We are freaking adults. This is not a public high school.
And for those who think it’s security, it is sick it somehow requires an entire stinking week to get security concerns addressed. This has turned into a great excuse, if I can suggest false flag op here? Seems like too good a crisis to waste.
Dems already trying to paint the lefty as a right-winger.
Lord, please bring these men into your kingdom. Grant them peace forever.
Wow, just wow. That is tragically beautiful, thank you.
It was never my honor to serve. I am a fat old man and have lived a good life, I wish at that last moment I could trade places with them and they could have come home as the brave heroes they were and have full lives. But that won’t be, I’m here and they are up there.
Thank you to all our wonderful military heroes.
God bless them and keep them.
Thank you for the link and the excerpt. “That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight-for you.”
I watched Saving Private Ryan the other night, and at the end where Ryan is told “Earn It”. I thought of how those words are meant for me as well. What have I done with the many Freedoms that these young men and many others have sacrificed their lives for?
May they both feast at the tables of their ancestors for eternity.
God Bless all the men and women and their families serving our country and in harms way. Thank God that these brave young men and women are on guard 24/7. Prayers to the families of all those making sacrifices.
bttt
(( ping ))
Lt. Gen. Kelly said so much with so few words.
Many of us know a U.S. Marine or two.
No finer American exists.
May God rest their souls in peace and may He comfort their loved ones.
The details were posted, shortly after the action, on numerous websites long before Kelly repeated them in November.