thedrifter
01-02-09, 07:24 AM
Navy Crosses to Marines Who Stood Fast
January 01, 2009
Newsday
The Marines will posthumously award their highest combat valor medal, the Navy Cross, to Cpl. Jonathan Yale of Burkeville, Va., and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, a Sag Harbor, N.Y., native, who were killed in Iraq in April fending off a truck bomb aimed at fellow Marines.
Haerter’s mother, JoAnn Lyles, said the award for her son and the fellow Marine killed with him will bring a measure of sadness, but she is happy that his bravery will not be forgotten.
“It’s nice for Jordan, but it’s bittersweet,” Lyles said. “I really think he would have thought he was just doing his job. It’s what they are trained to do.”
Haerter and Yale were on guard duty at an entrance to a compound in Ramadi that housed scores of Marines and Iraqi police. When the driver of a 20-foot truck ignored orders to stop, the two Marines held their ground while Iraqi soldiers fled. Firing automatic weapons, they brought the truck to a stop moments before it detonated.
“If that truck had made it into the compound, there would’ve been a lot more casualties,” said witness Lance Cpl. Benjamin Tupaj, according to a Marine news release. “They saved everyone’s life here.”
Marine officials decided to grant the award to Haerter and Yale, of Burkeville, Va., after reviewing security footage of the incident, Camp Lejeune Marine spokesman Lt. Philip Klay said.
Klay said Marine officials are trying to schedule the ceremony for February so members of the two men’s units can attend. Haerter was with the 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Yale with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine.
Lyles said the ceremony may be at the National Museum of the Marine Corps near the Quantico Marine base in Virginia, or at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina or another venue.
The medal is second only to the Medal of Honor, the government’s highest military award. It is granted only to those who act with conspicuous bravery in the presence of great danger or personal risk.
Ellie
January 01, 2009
Newsday
The Marines will posthumously award their highest combat valor medal, the Navy Cross, to Cpl. Jonathan Yale of Burkeville, Va., and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, a Sag Harbor, N.Y., native, who were killed in Iraq in April fending off a truck bomb aimed at fellow Marines.
Haerter’s mother, JoAnn Lyles, said the award for her son and the fellow Marine killed with him will bring a measure of sadness, but she is happy that his bravery will not be forgotten.
“It’s nice for Jordan, but it’s bittersweet,” Lyles said. “I really think he would have thought he was just doing his job. It’s what they are trained to do.”
Haerter and Yale were on guard duty at an entrance to a compound in Ramadi that housed scores of Marines and Iraqi police. When the driver of a 20-foot truck ignored orders to stop, the two Marines held their ground while Iraqi soldiers fled. Firing automatic weapons, they brought the truck to a stop moments before it detonated.
“If that truck had made it into the compound, there would’ve been a lot more casualties,” said witness Lance Cpl. Benjamin Tupaj, according to a Marine news release. “They saved everyone’s life here.”
Marine officials decided to grant the award to Haerter and Yale, of Burkeville, Va., after reviewing security footage of the incident, Camp Lejeune Marine spokesman Lt. Philip Klay said.
Klay said Marine officials are trying to schedule the ceremony for February so members of the two men’s units can attend. Haerter was with the 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Yale with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine.
Lyles said the ceremony may be at the National Museum of the Marine Corps near the Quantico Marine base in Virginia, or at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina or another venue.
The medal is second only to the Medal of Honor, the government’s highest military award. It is granted only to those who act with conspicuous bravery in the presence of great danger or personal risk.
Ellie