"Corporals [[Jonathan Yale]] and [[Jordan Haerter]] were working a guardpost in Ramadi in 2008 **when a truck bomber raced toward the small base they protected**. An exit to safety stood just a few feet away. The local police didn’t hesitate to use it when they saw the truck coming. It was the two Marines, who had met only moments before, who stepped forward in unison and began to fire. Two thousand pounds of explosives went off as they unloaded their weapons into the accelerating truck. "Six seconds had elapsed between the time the truck entered the alley and its deadly blast. "The crater **that marked the last moments of the two men’s lives**, just twenty and twenty-two years old, was more than sixty feet wide and five feet deep. General [[John Kelly]], who interviewed witnesses on the scene, would write movingly of the sacrifice the heroes made without hesitation or consideration. “**They could have run and likely survived, but did not,” he said. “I do not think anyone would have called them cowards if they had. They took seriously the duties and responsibilities of a Marine on post, and stood their ground** before they would allow anyone or anything to pass. **For their dedication they lost their lives. Because they did what they did only two families had their hearts broken . . . rather than as many as fifty**. These families will never know how truly close they came to a knock on the door that night.” --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[courage]], [[life-of-service]], **Source** -- [[202409180128 - B - Courage is Calling]]