Fwd: The Last Six Seconds
Dick Shipp
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From: Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 0:01:04 -0500
Subject: The Last Six Seconds
To:
A bit of a read, but an incredible story.
"The Last Six Seconds"
One can hardly conceive of the enormous grief held quietly within
General Kelly as he spoke.
On Nov 13, 2010, Lt General John Kelly, USMC, gave a speech to the
Semper Fi Society of St. Louis , MO. This was four days after his son,
Lt Robert Kelly, USMC, was killed by an IED while on his 3rd Combat
tour. During his speech, General Kelly spoke about the dedication and
valor of our young men and women who step forward each and every day
to protect us.
During the speech, he never mentioned the loss of his own son. He
closed the speech with the moving account of the last six seconds in
the lives of two young Marines who died with rifles blazing to protect
their brother Marines.
"I will leave you with a story about the kind of people they are,
about the quality of the steel in their backs, about the kind of
dedication they bring to our country while they serve in uniform and
forever after as veterans. Two years ago when I was the Commander of
all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine
infantry battalions, 1/9 "The Walking Dead," and 2/8 were switching
out in Ramadi. One battalion in the closing days of their deployment
going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat
tour. Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan
Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion,
were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost
that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines. The same
broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police,
also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in
Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and
owned by Al Qaeda.
Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and
daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and whom he
supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than
$23,000.
Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle class white kid from Long
Island . They were from two completely different worlds. Had they not
joined the Marines they would never have met each other, or understood
that multiple America 's exist simultaneously depending on one's race,
education level, economic status, and where you might have been born.
But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of
Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close,
or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am
sure went something like, "Okay you two clowns, stand this post and
let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass. You clear?"
I am also sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in
unison something like, "Yes Sergeant," with just enough attitude that
made the point without saying the words, "No kidding ‘sweetheart’, we
know what we're doing." They then relieved two other Marines on watch
and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security
Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq .
A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way -
perhaps 60-70 yards in length, and sped its way through the serpentine
of concrete jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the
two were posted and detonated, killing them both catastrophically.
Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque
100 yards away collapsed. The truck's engine came to rest two hundred
yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped. Our
explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of
explosives. Two died, and because these two young infantrymen didn't
have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi
and American brothers-in-arms.
When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after
it happened I called the regimental commander for details as something
about this struck me as different. Marines dying or being seriously
wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank
or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and even die in the
process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed
different. The regimental commander had just returned from the site
and he agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to
the event - just Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of
finding out what actually happened and then to decorate the two
Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I'd have to do it as a combat
award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the bureaucrats
back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had any
chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general
officer.
I traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a
half-dozen Iraqi police all of whom told the same story. The blue
truck turned down into the alley and immediately sped up as it made
its way through the serpentine. They all said, "We knew immediately
what was going on as soon as the two Marines began firing." The Iraqi
police then related that some of them also fired, and then to a man,
ran for safety just prior to the explosion. All survived. Many were
injured, some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears
welling up said, "They'd run like any normal man would to save his
life." "What he didn't know until then," he said, "And what he learned
that very instant, was that Marines are not normal." Choking past the
emotion he said, "Sir, in the name of God no sane man would have stood
there and done what they did." "No sane man." "They saved us all."
What we didn't know at the time, and only learned a couple of days
later after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for
posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged
initially in the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It
happened exactly as the Iraqis had described it. It took exactly six
seconds from when the truck entered the alley until it detonated.
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 separately come to the same conclusion about what was going
on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley.
Exactly no time to talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they
should do. Only enough time to take half an instant and think about
what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before, "Let no
unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass." The two Marines had about
five seconds left to live.
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, some of whom had fired their AKs, now
scattering like the normal and rational men they were - 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 ( I
deleted) who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers -
American and Iraqi-bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the
fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines
standing their ground.
If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe because
two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The
recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of
the two Marines. In all of the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter
never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, 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.
We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he could
bestow to man while he lived on this earth - freedom. We also believe
he gave us another gift nearly as precious - our soldiers, sailors,
airmen, U S Customs and Border Patrol, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines -
to safeguard that gift and guarantee no force on this earth can ever
steal it away.
It has been my distinct honor to have been with you here today. Rest
assured our America, this experiment in democracy started over two
centuries ago, will forever remain the "land of the free and home of
the brave" so long as we never run out of tough young Americans who
are willing to look beyond their own self-interest and comfortable
lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to
hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm.
God Bless America , and SEMPER FIDELIS !"
IT WOULD BE NICE (GREAT!) TO SEE the message spread if more would pass
it on. Semper Fi, God Bless America and God Bless the United States
Marine Corps...
Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever.
Thank you for your service.... From those of us on the home front.