thedrifter
12-31-08, 06:46 AM
2 Marines get bravery medals posthumously
Guarding gate to security station, they prevented bomb from killing many
By TONY PERRY, Los Angeles Times
First published: Wednesday, December 31, 2008
SAN DIEGO — They had known each other only a few minutes, but they will be linked forever to what U.S. Marines brass say is one of the most extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice in the Iraq war.
Cpl. Jonathan Yale, 21, grew up in Farmville in rural Virginia. He had joined the Marine Corps to put structure in his life and support his mother and sister. He was within a few days of heading home.
Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, 19, was from Sag Harbor, a comfortably middle-class suburb on Long Island As a boy, he had worn military garb, and he had felt the pull of adventure and patriotism. He had just arrived in Iraq.
On April 22, 2008, the two were assigned to guard the main gate to Joint Security Station Nasser in Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar province, once an insurgent stronghold and still dangerous.
Dozens of Marines and Iraqi police lived at the compound, and some were sleeping after all-night patrols when Yale and Haerter reported for duty. Haerter had volunteered to watch the main gate, even though it was considered the most hazardous of the compound's three guard stations because it could be approached from a busy thoroughfare.
The sun had barely risen on a warm sultry morning when the two sentries spotted a 20-foot-long truck headed toward the gate, weaving through the concrete barriers. Two Iraqi police officers assigned to the gate ran for their lives. So did several Iraqi police on the adjacent street.
Yale and Haerter tried to wave off the truck, but it kept coming. They opened fire, Yale with a machine gun, Haerter with an M-16. The truck slowed but kept rolling.
A few dozen feet from the gate, the truck exploded. Investigators found it was loaded with 2,000 pounds of explosives and its driver, his hand on a "dead-man switch," was determined to commit suicide and slaughter Marines and Iraqi police.
The thunderous explosion rocked Ramadi, interrupting the morning call to prayers from mosques. Haerter was dead; Yale was soon to be.
Three Marines about 300 feet away were injured. So were eight Iraqi police and two- dozen civilians. But several dozen other nearby Marines and Iraqi police, while shaken, were unhurt.
Without their steadfastness, the truck probably would have penetrated the compound before it exploded, and 50 or more Marines and Iraqis would have been killed. The incident happened in just six seconds.
Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the top Marine in Iraq, nominated the two young men for the Navy Cross, the second-highest award for combat bravery for Marines and sailors.
Even by the standards expected of Marine "grunts," their bravery was exceptional, Kelly said.
The Haerter and Yale families will receive the medals early in 2009.
Ellie
Guarding gate to security station, they prevented bomb from killing many
By TONY PERRY, Los Angeles Times
First published: Wednesday, December 31, 2008
SAN DIEGO — They had known each other only a few minutes, but they will be linked forever to what U.S. Marines brass say is one of the most extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice in the Iraq war.
Cpl. Jonathan Yale, 21, grew up in Farmville in rural Virginia. He had joined the Marine Corps to put structure in his life and support his mother and sister. He was within a few days of heading home.
Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, 19, was from Sag Harbor, a comfortably middle-class suburb on Long Island As a boy, he had worn military garb, and he had felt the pull of adventure and patriotism. He had just arrived in Iraq.
On April 22, 2008, the two were assigned to guard the main gate to Joint Security Station Nasser in Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar province, once an insurgent stronghold and still dangerous.
Dozens of Marines and Iraqi police lived at the compound, and some were sleeping after all-night patrols when Yale and Haerter reported for duty. Haerter had volunteered to watch the main gate, even though it was considered the most hazardous of the compound's three guard stations because it could be approached from a busy thoroughfare.
The sun had barely risen on a warm sultry morning when the two sentries spotted a 20-foot-long truck headed toward the gate, weaving through the concrete barriers. Two Iraqi police officers assigned to the gate ran for their lives. So did several Iraqi police on the adjacent street.
Yale and Haerter tried to wave off the truck, but it kept coming. They opened fire, Yale with a machine gun, Haerter with an M-16. The truck slowed but kept rolling.
A few dozen feet from the gate, the truck exploded. Investigators found it was loaded with 2,000 pounds of explosives and its driver, his hand on a "dead-man switch," was determined to commit suicide and slaughter Marines and Iraqi police.
The thunderous explosion rocked Ramadi, interrupting the morning call to prayers from mosques. Haerter was dead; Yale was soon to be.
Three Marines about 300 feet away were injured. So were eight Iraqi police and two- dozen civilians. But several dozen other nearby Marines and Iraqi police, while shaken, were unhurt.
Without their steadfastness, the truck probably would have penetrated the compound before it exploded, and 50 or more Marines and Iraqis would have been killed. The incident happened in just six seconds.
Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the top Marine in Iraq, nominated the two young men for the Navy Cross, the second-highest award for combat bravery for Marines and sailors.
Even by the standards expected of Marine "grunts," their bravery was exceptional, Kelly said.
The Haerter and Yale families will receive the medals early in 2009.
Ellie