S*******i
发帖数: 2018 | 1 From a Nov. 13, 2010, speech by then-Lt. Gen. John Kelly to the Semper Fi
Society of St. Louis, describing a 2008 suicide bombing in Iraq that killed
two Marines, Cpl. Jonathan Yale, 22, and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, 20. Gen.
Kelly’s son, Second Lt. Robert Kelly, 29, was killed in action in
Afghanistan Nov. 9, 2010:
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.
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 in to the body of the son-of-a-bitch 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. | f**********n
发帖数: 29853 | 2 短暂的二十几岁生命，漫长的生命最后六秒。。。。。 |
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