04/22/2024
On the morning of April 22, 2008, Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 19, and Corporal Jonathan Yale, 21, volunteered to stand guard at Joint Security Station Nasser in the heart of Ramadi, Iraq. Haerter had just gotten into the country a few days prior, while Yale had already logged seven months into his tour. The two men had barely gotten acquainted when an oil truck barreled through the serpentine and headed toward the post, where dozens of sleeping Marines and Iraqi police laid unaware.
From the archived security video footage, Iraqi guards at the gate immediately flee the scene and take cover in concrete berms—they survive. In the six seconds, it takes for the truck to approach the gate, both Marines open fire and engage the driver to the very last second. In the end, the truck is abruptly brought to a halt just outside the gate...detonating in an explosion that blows out the windows of every nearby building. Both Haerter and Yale are killed in the blast, but 150 Marines and Iraqi police remain safe and alive within the walls of JSS Nasser. Both LCpl. Haerter and Cpl. Yale were posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
