Six Seconds to Live
by Bill Muckler, TLB Contributing Author
Eight years ago, two Marines from two different walks of life who had literally just met were told to stand guard in front of their outpost’s entry-control point. Minutes later, they were staring down a big blue truck packed with explosives..
General John Kelly, USMC, spoke to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on November 13, 2010. He was then a Marine Lieutenant General who described a 2008 suicide bombing in Iraq that killed Marine Corporal Jonathan Yale, 22, and Marine Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 20. The Wall Street Journal published the excerpt under the heading “Six Seconds to Live” and also posted the item online with a link to “the complete text” of General Kelly’s speech. The Journal noted that General Kelly’s son, Second Lieutenant Robert Kelly, USMC, 29, had been killed in action in Afghanistan on November 9, 2010, only four days before he gave the speech.
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.
Watch Part 2 of LtGen John Kelly speech (Part 3)
We can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting ourselves in their heads, it took about a second for the two Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going to happen once the truck came into their view at the far end of the passageway. They had no time to talk it over, no time to call the sergeant to ask what they should do. They only enough time to take half a second to remember their duty and to think about what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before: “let no unauthorized personnel, or vehicles, pass.”
The Two Marine Corporals had Five Seconds to Live.
It took perhaps another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open fire. By this time the truck was halfway through the barriers and gaining speed as it hurtled toward the final two-man barrier. The recording also shows many Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the normal and rational men they were. They ran right past the Marines. Now, Yale and Haerter were face to face with death.
Three Seconds to Live
For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines’ firing their weapons nonstop. The suicide truck’s windshield explodes into shards of glass as non-stop rounds take it apart and tear into the body of the terrorist son-of-a-bitch who is trying to drive this lethal bomb, disguised as a truck, past them to kill their brother Marines and Iraqi soldiers bedded down in their barracks for the night. Asleep and totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground.
If these men had been aware, they would have known they were safe, because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. That’s what heroes do. Stand their ground. Defend their brothers. Watch their six. The truck careens to a stop immediately in front of these two brave Marines. Yale and Haerter never hesitated in the face of this instantaneous violence.
One Second to Live
By all reports, and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never started to step aside. They never shifted their weight. Their spread feet stood shoulder width apart. They leaned into the danger, firing as rapidly as they could work their weapons. They had one second left to live.
The Camera Goes Blank
The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young Marines die. 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. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight for us.
[Video added by TLB]
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Much of this article was taken from a report posted on October 26, 2017 by Scott Johnson in Armed Forces.
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No Comparison
Compare these two Marines to the ignorant cowards that will not honor our flag, anthem and country. While the subversive leftists glorify these sad weaklings, I’m asking why Yale and Haerter have not been awarded the Medal of Honor.
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I Will Not Watch the Nonsense Football League
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Spiritus meus es tu. Ego semper fidelis.
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They should have received the Medal Of Honor. Many received the medal for doing less, than these men.