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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
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 Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 12:34 pm Post subject: "Giving Thanks for Our Warriors" |
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While perusing the net to gain a sense of the growing revulsion to recent comments by MSNBC leftist Chris Hayes, I was fortunate to discover the following from "The Weekly Standard" from some time back.
On this Memorial Day, 2012, Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly's remarks, several days following the combat death of his own son, 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, serve well as a sobering eulogy to those fallen patriots and heroes we honor and remember this day.
| Quote: | Giving Thanks for Our Warriors
From the Scrapbook
Dec 6, 2010, Vol. 16, No. 12
What follows are excerpts from remarks by Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on November 13. Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, 29, had been killed in action four days earlier in Sangin, in southern Afghanistan, while leading his platoon on a combat patrol:
"Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when men and women of character step forward to look danger and adversity straight in the eye, refusing to blink, or give ground, even to their own deaths...No, they are not victims but are warriors, your warriors, and warriors are never victims regardless of how and where they fall. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make...for you...
“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....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. .??.??. 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....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....
“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 [Iraqi policemen on the scene] 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 halfway 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 nonstop...the truck’s windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore into the body of the son-of-a-***** 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.”
The Weekly Standard |
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LewWaters
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Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 2:58 am Post subject: |
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Supposedly, Hayes has apologized, but that seems par for the course, issue meaningless and insincere apologies after their words tick off Americans.
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Navy_Navy_Navy
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Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 6:28 pm Post subject: Re: "Giving Thanks for Our Warriors" |
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| Me#1You#10 wrote: |
If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe...because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. |
How many of us are aware? How many of us know in our hearts that we are safe only at great cost?
It's not about the barbecues and shopping mall sale-a-thons.
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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother |
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LewWaters
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Location: Washington State
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Navy_Navy_Navy
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Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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Nice pictures, Lew - thanks for sharing!
Around here, I've noticed some interesting adaptations of the "official" POW/MIA table setting.
I'm happy to see that people have taken this up on their own.
Never forget.
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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother |
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TEWSPilot
Admiral
Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 1235
Location: Kansas (Transplanted Texan)
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| Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 4:59 am Post subject: |
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A young Marine from our church was returning home from Camp Pendleton to Derby, KS last week after finishing his tour in Afghanistan. He and a buddy stopped off to look at the Grand Canyon, and in a freak accident, he fell 600 feet to his death. His funeral was yesterday, and the Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist protesters came here to Derby to protest the funeral.
Fortunately, their permit to protest kept them a couple of blocks away from the church where the funeral was held, and it expired before the end of the funeral services. There were scores of counter-protesters all around them, and many small groups of supporters of the family were gathered across the street from the church holding signs of support and American flags. The church was filled to overflowing, even the balcony and hallways were filled, the parking lot was filled to capacity, and nearby parking lots for businesses were filled, with many cars having to park along the street.
As I left, the Patriot Guard were preparing to go to the cemetery to set up and to escort Jeffrey and the family and the procession. The barricades that had been used to keep the Westboro scum back were now plastered with patriotic signs, and several small crowds of supporters were on the sidewalk across from the church with American flags and patriotic signs. I’m not ashamed to admit I wept, mostly from pride in being in the company of loving, caring, patriotic ordinary folks who don’t have a lot but who appreciate it more than we can ever know and to whom we owe a debt of gratitude we can never pay.
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Navy_Navy_Navy
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Joined: 07 May 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 2:05 am Post subject: |
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What a tragedy, TEWS! 
I'm glad to hear that people were willing to stand up to the WBC loonies to protect his family and friends from their injustice.
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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother |
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