54 Lives Saved By Marines’ Last Stand
by admin on Nov.13, 2009, under Combat
Is this isn’t the ultimate in bravery, then I don’t know what is. I’m humbled by these two brave men. I hope that their families can take solace in their loss in knowing that their sons/brothers gave their all to protect others.
RAMADI, IRAQ (April 29, 2008) – It was a typical quiet morning on April 22, with the temperature intensifying as a bright orange sun emerged high from the horizon.
Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, a rifleman with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, and Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, a rifleman with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, RCT-1, were standing post, just as they’ve done numerous times before. During a standard length watch in a small checkpoint protected by concrete barriers where they overlooked the small gravel road, lined with palm trees leading to their entry control point.
However, this morning would be different. Quickly it would turn, chaotic then tragic. Two Marines would gallantly sacrifice their lives so others could live.
A truck packed with thousands of pounds of explosives entered the area where Haerter and Yale were standing guard. Realizing the vehicles intentions Haerter and Yale without hesitation stood their ground, drew their weapons and fired at the vehicle. The truck rolled to a stop and exploded, killing the two Marines.
“I was on post the morning of the attack,” said Lance Cpl. Benjamin Tupaj, a rifleman with 3rd Platoon, Police Transition Team 3, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. “I heard the (squad automatic weapon) go off at a cyclic rate and then the detonation along with a flash. Then I heard a Marine start yelling ‘we got hit, we got hit.’ It was hectic.”
In the face of a committed enemy, Haerter and Yale stood their ground, in turn saving the lives of numerous Marines, sailors, Iraqi Policemen, and civilians. Both Marines displayed heroic, self-sacrificing actions and truly lived up to the Corps values of honor, courage, and commitment.
“They saved all of our lives, if it wasn’t for them that gate probably wouldn’t have held,” Tupaj said. “The explosion blew out all of the windows over 150 meters from where the blast hit. If that truck had made it into the compound, there would’ve been a lot more casualties. They saved everyone’s life here.”
According to official reports the heroic actions of Haerter and Yale’s saved the lives of the 33 Marines and 21 Iraqi Police as well as numerous civilians at the entry control point.
“They are heroes because thousands of pounds (of explosives) would’ve made its way through the gate and many more of us wouldn’t be here,” said Lance Cpl. Lawrence Tillery a rifleman with 3rd platoon. “I have a son back home, and I know if that truck would’ve made it to where it was going – I wouldn’t be here today. Because of Lance Cpl. Haerter and Cpl. Yale, I will be able to see my son again. They gave me that opportunity.”
A week after the attack, the Marines with 3rd platoon, remember their fallen brethren as good friends and Marines
“Cpl. Yale was a great guy, really friendly and kind of shy,” said Hospitalman Eric Schwartz a corpsman with the platoon.
“Haerter was an amazing guy, I knew everything about him. He was my best friend.” said Lance Cpl. Cody Israel, a rifleman with 3rd platoon, Haerter’s roommate for more than a year and half.
Haerter and Yale were both posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon and have been nominated for an award for their valor.
Editor’s Note: This story was written by Lance Corporal Casey Jones, a combat correspondent stationed in Camp Ramadi, Iraq. Jones recently completed a story on two Marines that were killed while defending their post. The Marines have been nominated for a Silver Star, the third highest award in the military, for their heroic actions that day.(WITN)
Man Turns Himself Into A Living Memorial
by admin on Nov.13, 2009, under Support Our Soldiers
The picture says it all. Former soldier Shaun Clark made a promise to tattoo the name of every soldier lost in Afghanistan, and he’s holding true to that promise. He now has 232 names permanently inked onto his back.
Mr Clark, who served with the 8th Battalion Light Infantry Regiment from 1989 to 1996, was waiting in the tattooist’s chair at 11am this morning to carry out his painful pledge.
The first name was etched on his body just as the traditional Armistice Day two-minute silence began.
He said: ‘I don’t mind suffering for a few days if I can let the lads know that people really care about what they’re doing out there, and raise some money for the guys coming home wounded as well.
‘The family thought I was mad to begin with, but they’ve come round to the idea now, and my wife is backing me all the way.’
The married father-of-two from Doncaster hopes his challenge will raise £500 for the charity Help for Heroes.
He plans on updating the sombre list every year on Remembrance Day if required.
Before his ordeal began, Mr Clark said: ‘It’s going to be painful business but it’s nothing compared to what the troops are going through every single day on the front line.’
He added: ‘I know it’s a bit extreme covering the top half of your body front and back with 223 names, but it’s my way of honouring all those men and women and it’ll be there as a memorial for as long as I live.’
Mr Clark
Mr Clark hopes to raise £500 for Help4Heroes through his ordeal
Mr Clark said: ‘I wanted to do something to raise money for the heroes who still need help and to honour the memory of the fallen.
‘I’ve still lots of friends from my days in the Army over in Afghanistan and there’s lots of Donny lads out there as well.
‘Lots of people do things to raise money but I wanted to do something different and something permanent.
‘It’s not just about raising money – it’s also about letting these lads know that people care about what they’re doing.’ (DailyMail.co.uk)
The Navajo Code Talkers
by admin on Nov.12, 2009, under Historical Heroes, Non-Combatant Heroes
People now know about the famous Navajo Code Talkers, thanks in part to the 2002 movie Windtalkers. But during World War II, even the very existence of the elite code talkers was a heavily guarded secret. With the cunning use of their native Navajo tongue, they were able to pass vital information along to U.S. troops without the chance of the message being interrupted and translated. A small force of only 400 was able to confound the Japanese attempts to gain information.
Before the Code Talkers, the Japanese had been having an easy time intercepting and translating the American messages. They had excellent English translators.
After the Code Talkers began their operations, not one coded message was broken.
The Code Talkers had been sworn to utter secrecy regarding their actions in the field, and even after the subject was officially declassified in 1968, they kept quiet. But now not many are left, due to age and illness, and the remaining men fear that their incredible story will be lost.
Let us not forget their vital part in World War II.
For more information about the Navajo Code Talkers, click here for an article talking about them joining in for Veteran’s Day, or here for the official website.
Aged Veteran Denied His Fuel Allowance
by admin on Nov.11, 2009, under Historical Heroes
Now really. The local government should be ashamed of itself.
Bob McGowan with his medals
Bob McGowan was told he could not claim the £300 subsidy because he moved into his flat just one day too late to qualify.
Despite his age and the six years he spent fighting for his country across Europe, Asia and Africa, the Pension Service said it could not show flexibility.
Mr McGowan, of Portsmouth, has been waging a battle of principle with Whitehall ever since he was turned down for the fuel support in 2007.
He wants an apology from Gordon Brown and says if it is not forthcoming he will post his five medals to 10 Downing Street.
Mr McGowan, who won the Burma Star, the Africa Star, the War Medal 1939 to 1945, the 1939-1945 Star and the Defence Medal following 2,133 days on active duty overseas, said: ‘I think it’s disgusting.
‘It seems I’ve got to bow down over one solitary day, when I did six years overseas.
‘You’d think they would make allowances but they keep saying external factors won’t be considered under any circumstances.
‘What hurts me is I that did all that time overseas and they ignored it – they think more of one solitary day.
‘I’ll hold on to my medals if Gordon Brown will apologise, of course.
‘But if I don’t get satisfactory answers I will send them. I’d like this saga to end. It’s two years and I have had enough of it.” (DailyMail.co.uk)
It’s shocking that his local authorities are adhering so strictly to the rules. McGowan was only one day off from the deadline. It seems like harsh treatment for such a heroic man.
Frank Luke – American Aviator
by admin on Nov.09, 2009, under Historical Heroes
Some men just seemed destined to be great, and when it comes to wartime greatness, I have to admit, it sure seems like a little crazy is necessary. American aviator Frank Luke flew during World War I and has an incredible record to show for it. Sadly though, Frank didn’t make it out of enemy territory during a mission when he was shot down.
Known as the “Balloon Buster”, Frank managed to shoot down many enemy observation balloons. This was a dangerous business, since the balloons, being only balloons, were heavily guarded. Large squadrons, military vehicles, and a healthy number of anti-aircraft weapons surrounded the fragile balloons, and it was his job to get through them.
Really, he was lucky to do this feat once, but Frank Luke managed to down 18 balloons and enemy aircraft in only 18 days.
During one mission (to be his last), Frank was shot down over enemy territory. During that mission he managed to take down 3 balloons and 2 German planes. He was alive when he landed and so he also took 11 German soldiers, wounding others, with him during his last stand.
What an amazing soldier Frank Luke was. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic actions. For more about him, click here.
Fighter Pilot Returns The Favor To His Native Saviors
by admin on Nov.05, 2009, under Historical Heroes, Veterans
This is pretty cool. A WWII American fighter pilot crashed in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, and after a harrowing 31 days lost in the jungle, the native people found him and cared for him until he could be sent home. Years later, and after that the rest of his life, the pilot did what he could to repay the community for their courageous generosity.
Gimundo – During World War II, American fighter pilot Fred “Hargy” Hargesheimer was attacked by a Japanese pilot while flying on a mission over Papua New Guinea. As the sound of enemy fire echoed through the sky, he felt bullets pound against his small plane. When the plane’s left engine erupted into flames, he strapped on his flimsy parachute and jumped.
If he’d stayed on board, he was sure to die in the plane crash. Though he might survive the parachute jump, he would be stranded in the jungle alone. Either way, it was almost certain that he’d never make it home alive.
Against all odds, he survived – but that near-fatal accident transformed Hargesheimer’s life in a way that he never could have imagined.
“I’m so grateful for getting shot out of the sky,” he told The Associated Press, 64 years later.
When the pilot jumped from his falling plane, he landed in the depths of a Pacific island rainforest. He had no possessions except a small survival kit that included a compass, a machete, extra ammo, and 2 chocolate bars. He had no idea where he was, and was sure that if he was discovered, he would be killed.
For 31 days, he pushed his way through the thick jungle trees, drinking rainwater and subsisting on snails after his chocolate supply ran out. He had just about given up on ever making his way out of the rainforest when suddenly, he heard the voices of native islanders coming from the nearby river.
Hargesheimer stayed hidden, assuming that they’d attack him if they found him. But when they discovered him, they handed him a note written in English by an Australian officer, saying that they had aided other soldiers and could be trusted.
The villagers took the starving soldier to their village, Ea Ea, and gave him his own hut. They fed him boiled pig, took him fishing, taught him their language, and nursed him back to health when he became sick with malaria. Most importantly, they kept him hidden when Japanese soldiers passed through the area –a decision that could have cost them their own lives.
“If they’d seen my boot prints, I think they would have tortured everyone in the village until they produced me,” he told The AP.
Eight months after the plane crash, Hargesheimer finally returned to the United States, courtesy of a submarine pick-up arranged by Australian soldiers. He married, became a father, and got a sales job in Minnesota. But he never stopped thinking about the people of Ea Ea, and the kindness they had showed him. He vowed to return to Papua New Guinea one day to repay them for saving his life.
In 1963, he finally made it back, taking a ship to the island where he’d spent so much time. The villagers lined up on the beach to greet him, singing a rendition of “God Save the Queen” in his honor.
It didn’t seem like enough to simply thank them for helping him during his time of need. So when he learned that the village needed a school, he decided to do everything he could to build it: Over the next three years, he reached out to everyone he knew for donations, and returned with $15,000 to build the village’s first elementary school. When it opened its doors, it had 74 students. Today, there are more than 400.
That wasn’t Hargesheimer’s last connection with the people of Ea Ea –in 1970, after their own children had left the home, he and his wife decided to move to the island and join the community there. They spent four years in the village, where they taught students and helped to build a second school. Though they had to cope without the comforts they’d been used to in America, those four years were the best of their lives, according to Hargesheimer’s wife, who died in 1985.
Hargesheimer, now 91, recently returned to Ea Ea for what will be his last visit. His fighter plane had just been discovered in the depths of the jungle, and he had been invited to view the wreckage of that fateful crash –in his mind, the best thing that ever happened to him.
Hargesheimer has a hero’s reputation in Ea Ea, where he is known by the formal title, “Masta Preddi.” But he believes that no matter how hard he has worked to repay the hospitality the villagers showed him all those years ago, it will never be enough.
“These people were responsible for saving my life,” he told the AP. “How could I ever repay it?”
Original story by Kathryn Hawkins
Women In Combat
by admin on Nov.04, 2009, under Combat, Support Our Soldiers, Veterans
As time goes on, more and more women are signing up to serve in the military. In previous years, the roles these women played were, more often than not, set far from the front lines. Now as they gain more traction in the military factions, women are beginning to appear on the front lines of war. No longer are they confined to desk or technical jobs. They are women warriors.
But with gain comes loss. Even though women are serving alongside their male peers, the old ideas and concepts of who can be a warrior still hold. These preconceptions lead both the military and civilians to treat these brave women differently than their male counterparts, despite the fact that both sexes are experiencing the same events and participating equally in the field.
The NY Times had a thoughtful article about women and their roles in the military. It also faces the ever present problem of PTSD in our soldiers, and the unique problems that arise when the condition arises in female soldiers. Overall, men and women experience PTSD almost exactly the same, but the way society treats the sufferer varies drastically between the sexes.
Perhaps it is time to put aside these archaic preconceptions and make sure that we treat our returning soldiers with respect and care – all of out soldiers, both men and women.
…In Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has quietly sidestepped regulations that bar women from jobs in ground combat. With commanders needing resources in wars without front lines, women have found themselves fighting on dusty roads and darkened outposts in ways that were never imagined by their parents or publicly authorized by Congress. And they have distinguished themselves in the field.
Psychologically, it seems, they are emerging as equals. Officials with the Department of Defense said that initial studies of male and female veterans with similar time outside the relative security of bases in Iraq showed that mental health issues arose in roughly the same proportion for members of each sex, though research continues.
“Female soldiers are actually handling and dealing with the stress of combat as well as male soldiers are,” said Col. Carl Castro, director of the Military Operational Research Program at the Department of Defense. “When I look at the data, I see nothing to counter that point.”
And yet, experts and veterans say, the circumstances of military life and the way women are received when they return home have created differences in how they cope. A man, for instance, may come home and drink to oblivion with his war buddies while a woman — often after having been the only woman in her unit — is more likely to suffer alone.
Explosives Expert Killed While Defusing a Bomb
by admin on Nov.03, 2009, under Combat
Staff Sergeant Olaf Sean George Schmid died at age 30 when he was attempting to defuse an IED (improvised explosive device) in Afghanistan this past Saturday. He had been deployed to Afghanistan only five months ago. In that time he had made safe 64 IEDs and found 11 bomb-making centres.
His family and fellow soldiers remembered the best of this brave man:
Schmid, also known as Oz, was from Winchester, Hampshire. His wife, Christina, said: “Oz was a phenomenal husband and loving father who was cruelly murdered during a relentless five-month tour. He was my best friend and soulmate. The pain of losing him is overwhelming. I take comfort knowing he saved countless lives with his hard work. I am so proud of him.”
Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Bex, commanding officer of the British counter-IED taskforce in Helmand, described Schmid as a “brilliant IEDD operator and a superb soldier”.
He added: “We loved him like a brother; he was a much adored member of our close-knit family … he had such a bright future ahead of him in a career that he so blatantly loved; the army has been robbed of a superb talent.”
Lt Col Robert Thomson, commander of the 2 Rifles battle group, said Schmid was “simply the bravest and most courageous man I have ever met”.
He added: “[Schmid] saved lives in 2 Rifles time after time and for that he will retain a very special place in every heart of every rifleman in our extraordinary battle group. Superlatives do not do the man justice. Better than the best. Better than the best of the best.”
One of Schmid’s colleagues, Major Tim Gould, described him as “a man of extreme courage”.
He added: “To see him out here in Afghanistan was to view a man very much in his element; he simply loved what he did. In fact, you would swear that he was born for it.” (Guardian.co.uk)
Welcome Home Soldier
by admin on Nov.02, 2009, under Support Our Soldiers
Cute video of a soldier surprising his daughter. I’m always excited when I hear word that a town’s troop is coming home to their wives, husbands, son and daughters.
WWII Soldier’s Diary Reveals Life In The Trenches
by admin on Oct.30, 2009, under Historical Heroes
WWII soldier John T French kept a journal while holed up in a muddy trench with German sniper bullets whizzing over his head every day. And the story that it tells is quite remarkable. In his diary he tells horror stories of the killing and death. He describes ‘piles of men’ who had been killed in the firefight, and he describes ducking those same bullets who killed his countrymen.
He also talks of downtime in the fighting when he and his comrades would shout good natured insults to the opposing Germans, who would throw their own back. 30 minutes were spent in verbal sparring involving cultural cliches from each country. Then they would duck under the trenches and get back to fighting.
French survived the horrors of the Second World War, but succumbed to TB at age 37.
I always find it fascinating to see items such as these diaries. As I know I’ve mentioned in a previous post, for me, seeing these words written, and photographs taken, so long ago really brings the people involved to life. While in school I always found it so easy to tune out and simply memorize the dates. I did these brave people an injustice by letting them remain just names on a piece of paper.
But they weren’t just names. They were people with hopes, dreams, and lives of their own, and not just some name to memorize in order to pass a test. This is something we all need to remember.
If you are interested in reading more of French’s diary, click here.
