"Six Seconds"

[kham]

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“Six Seconds”
Memorial Day, USMC, War in Iraq


This Memorial Day story is an excerpt from Lt. Gen. John Kelly’s Nov. 13, 2010 speech to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis, reprinted in The American Legion Magazine.


[O]n April 22, 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 “The Walking Dead,” and 2/8, were switching out in Ramadi. One battalion was in the closing days of its deployment, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour. Two Marines, Cpl. Jonathan Yale and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines.

The same ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police, our allies in the fight against terrorists in Ramadi – known at the time as the most dangerous city on earth, and owned by al-Qaeda.

Yale was a dirt-poor mixed-race kid from Virginia, with a wife, a mother and a sister, who all lived with him and he supported. 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 Americas exist simultaneously, depending on one’s race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, education level, economic status, or where you might have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible, 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 their sergeant squad leader, I’m sure, went something like this: “OK, take charge of this post and let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass. You clear?” I’m also sure Yale and Haerter 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 alleyway – perhaps 60 to 70 yards in length – and sped its way through the serpentine concrete Jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing them both. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck’s engine came to rest 200 yards away, knocking down most of a house down before it stopped. Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was caused by 2,000 pounds of explosive.

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 a few hours after it happened, I called the regimental commander for details. Something about this struck me as different. 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. 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, because a combat award requires two eyewitnesses, 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. They all said, “We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines began firing.” The Iraqi police 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, 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. They saved us all.”

What we didn’t know at the time, and only learned after I submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras recorded some of the attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis 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. I suppose 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. 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.” It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time, the truck was halfway through the barriers and gaining speed.

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, who had three seconds left to live. For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines firing their weapons nonstop. The truck’s windshield explodes into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tear into the body of the son of a bitch trying to get past them to kill their brothers – American and Iraqi – bedded down in the barracks, totally unaware that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder-width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could. They had only one second left to live, and I think they knew. 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.


Damn, it's dusty in here....

[Duncan Edwards]

I had heard about this a while back so I've had time to think about it. Most amazing thing left to acknowledge is the way the media will instantly report any minor grievance anybody wants to make a stink out of and totally neglected this story and a host of others like it. Winning a Navy Cross for standing your ground and doing your duty isn't the stuff of headlines any longer. This does not compute in an age where nobody is responsible for anything.

[Mynock]

Remember why you have the day off. It's called Memorial Dan and not Drunken BBQ Day. I'm not saying don't get drunk but when you do raise a glass or a can or a bottle to the guys and girls who aren't here to enjoy that sort of thing anymore. It's thanks to them we can.

[dlodoski]

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“Six Seconds”
Memorial Day, USMC, War in Iraq....

Thanks for passing that along Ken.

I read this a couple times (following the link back to the source adds the benefit of a helpful illustration).

In honor of these guys, and all of our fallen, I will no longer post regular content on Memorial Day.

And Duncan is right, the US media is completely messed up.

[General Woundwort]

Link to page

“Six Seconds”
Memorial Day, USMC, War in Iraq....

Thanks for passing that along Ken.

I read this a couple times (following the link back to the source adds the benefit of a helpful illustration).

In honor of these guys, and all of our fallen, I will no longer post regular content on Memorial Day.

And Duncan is right, the US media is completely messed up.

*emphasis added*

[kham]

Guinness For Strength
Jameson's for Courage

David Burge put it pretty much on target with his twitter post
Words fail me. Least the non-sailor type ones

<S> Boys

[PM2K]

Thanks for this, Khan. An important reminder for certain of the price for freedom.

I'm always touched how the military community doesn't seem to be affected by borders between allies. A few years back, my Dad was wearing a "Support the Troops button in our home town in Northern Ontario. I work and live near a Canadian military base, and these buttons - red with a picture of a yellow ribbon on it - were everywhere while Canadians based there were in harms way in Afghanistan. I shipped sacks full of them to my father - we've always backed the soldiers, and the buttons weren't widely available - and he would distribute them in town and always ran out.

Anyway, he's downtown coming out of the post office and wearing his button as always and is approached by a pair of huge young men, buzz cuts and their physiques giving them away as military. Turns out the two were US Marines, on leave and visiting the area to do some moose hunting. They wanted to personally thank Dad for him showing support for Canada's troops, who they knew were serving beside their own brothers in arms in Afghanistan. Dad didn't really know what to say except to thank them back. Needless to say, their words really touched him.

I myself have had to privilege of meeting members of the First Special Service Force, the joint US/Canadian unit best known as the Devil's Brigade, back in 2008, when they were the guests of honor of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment, or CSOR for short. These are the fellows we have serving in Iraq now, advising and training the locals in their battle against ISIS.
Anyway, CSOR formed in 2006, and received permission to accept the SSF's battle honors from the Canadian section of the unit. So, the regiment in turn singled out four members of the Devil's Brigade by naming unit trophies after them.

The Sgt. William "Sam" McGee, Sgt. Charlie Mann, Lt. Col. JFR Akehurst and Sgt. Herb Peppard Awards each recognize individual excellence in soldiering within CSOR. Mr. Mann, Mr. McGee and Mr. Peppard were on hand for this occasion, as was Donald Akehurst, who represented his late father Lt. Col. Akehurst. Also joining them were SSF vets Jack Calloway and George Simms,

Being able to spend an afternoon chatting with these gentlemen is something I will never forget, as they swapped stories, showed photos and one even let me flip through his paybook from 1943, including the notes in the margins, how their pay grade increased as they mastered new weapons, radios and ways to kill people. I was starstruck, as were the members of CSOR who also gathered around the veterans. It made for a great afternoon.

At the end, one of these amazing men handed me a SSF lapel pin, which they hand out at their reunions and such. That is a real treasure to have normally, but to have one handed to me by one of these legendary soldiers... wow,

I learned Sgt McGee has passed away recently, which is a shame, but not surprising, as the few grow fewer.

Anyway, a little late for Memorial Day, but I wanted to share that.