# The Last Six Seconds Of The Lives Of Two Heroic Marines



## ccford11 (Dec 10, 2010)

On Nov 13, 2010 Lt General John Kelly, USMC  gave a speech to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis, MO.  This was 4  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 the 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 6 seconds in the lives of 2 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 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 SOB 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,  Coast Guardsmen, and Marines-to safeguard that gift and guarantee no  force on this earth can every 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!"


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## fox1371 (Dec 10, 2010)

Another story that makes me proud to be a Marine


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## SkrewzLoose (Dec 10, 2010)

Amazing story.
RIP Marines.


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## ISO (Dec 10, 2010)

Semper Fi


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## Teufel (Dec 10, 2010)

I remember when this happened.  Pretty legit story.


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## fox1371 (Dec 10, 2010)

There is footage of the event included in this video.  It is an excellent speech concerning this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Bicfc9dp0


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## buffalo61 (Dec 11, 2010)

Teufel said:


> I remember when this happened. Pretty legit story.



I too remember when this happened.  It happened exactly the way that Gen Kelly told it.

RIP Cpl Yale, LCpl Haerter, and Lt Kelly

Semper Fidelis


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## LibraryLady (Dec 11, 2010)

We, as a country, are blessed to have men like this to serve and protect us.

LL


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## Marauder06 (Dec 11, 2010)

That's a really good story.


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## is friday (Dec 11, 2010)

That is SDI story time material.

Semper Fi, brothers. Rest in peace.


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## SkrewzLoose (Dec 11, 2010)

Mods/Admin, I understand this is a public site and anyone can get on here and find/read this story.  Even so, I'd like to know if I can copy & paste this story and send it in an e-mail to family and friends.  Or if not, just send the link?
Thank you.


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## Teufel (Dec 11, 2010)

SkrewzLoose said:


> Mods/Admin, I understand this is a public site and anyone can get on here and find/read this story.  Even so, I'd like to know if I can copy & paste this story and send it in an e-mail to family and friends.  Or if not, just send the link?
> Thank you.



No need, here is the original USMC link:
http://www.marines.mil/unit/marforres/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.marines.mil/unit/marforres/CMFR/blog/CMFR101113.aspx


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## SkrewzLoose (Dec 11, 2010)

Thanks for the links, Teufel.


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## devilbones (Dec 12, 2010)

Wow, I got a lump in my throat reading that.  Thanks for posting.


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## x SF med (Dec 12, 2010)

We, as a nation are honored to know that we are protected by men and women like this.  We as military - current and former - are proud to call men and women of this caliber Brother or Sister.  We as people thank these men for the sacrifice they made to save lives at the cost of their own.  Rest Marines, you are relieved from duty, report to God to receive further orders.


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## HOLLiS (Dec 12, 2010)

Well said X SF.


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## Cecil (Jan 2, 2011)

Got a little teary eyed reading that.... so young, so Marine.... God Bless the US Marine Corps and keep their families in your thoughts & prayers


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## tova (Jan 2, 2011)

RIP, Godspeed, PBS....


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## Scotth (Jan 4, 2011)

Great story and well said xSF.

RIP Marines.


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## ÉIREGOBRÁCH1922 (Jan 11, 2011)

Great read and video link.

RIP.


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## scrapdog (Feb 23, 2011)

I got a big lump in my throat reading that. We really have some very special people in the service of this country. God bless you all.


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