05/25/2026
I'd say we're a military family. My grandfather stormed the beaches of Normandy France. His friends didn't make it home. My uncle served in Vietnam, he came home. I didn't realize just how many didn't until I visited Washington DC and the Vietnam Memorial with cadets from LHS. The Vietnam memorial hits different. There are so many names. I also have three first cousins all who served. My husband continues to serve and there's this whole Marine Corps Base named after my husband's second cousin, 6 generations back.
I'm going to tell you about two. Two names that have affected me my husband's whole career. Two men I never met nor knew but a cousin from Louisiana's wife's brother just so happened to be one of their roommates. It's a small world you guys and an even smaller Marine Corps.
On April 22, 2008, in Ramadi, Iraq, two Marine infantrymen stood their ground and opened fire on a truck carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives as it barreled toward their post and the 150 Marines and Iraqi police inside the perimeter.
The truck stopped just shy of Cpl. Jonathan Yale and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, its windshield and the driver behind the wheel both blown away in a hail of gunfire. Then it detonated, killing the two Marines and leveling a city a block.
The attack, the Marines’ final stand, and their sacrifice all took place in a matter of seconds.
Haerter and Yale, were posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for their actions, which were later recounted by Iraqi police present that day and captured on a security camera, according to Business Insider.
Before that day, Yale and Haerter had never met. They came from different backgrounds and deployed with different units, with Yale preparing to head home with the rest of 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, and Haerter just beginning his seven-month tour with 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. But their final act of courage, defiance, and selfless sacrifice bound the two together forever.
According to a 2009 CBS News report, 21-year-old Yale had a rough upbringing in Virginia, and Haerter, who was 19 when he was killed, came from a middle-class family in Long Island, New York. If it wasn’t for the Marines, it’s likely that the two never would have met.
But, they did meet and that same day they made a split-second decision to stand, fight, and ultimately die together.
Shortly after the attack, Gen. John Kelly, the commander of all American and Iraqi forces at the time, met with those present that day, which he later described in a speech at the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis, Missouri, published by Business Insider.
“By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside,” Kelly said in the speech. “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. … 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.”
My husband was there that day. He just so happened to be at a different check point. He felt the blast, many Marines did. I think of these two brave Marines often. They did not run, they didn't stand down, they stood their ground and their actions saved countless other lives.
There are so many to remember today.
Lance Cpl. Guillermo S. Perez – Rifleman, Bravo Company, Battalion Landing Team 1/4, 15th MEU (New Braunfels, TX)
Pfc. Bryan J. Baltierra – Rifleman (Corona, CA)
Lance Cpl. Marco A. Barranco – Rifleman (Montebello, CA)
Pfc. Evan A. Bath – Rifleman (Oak Creek, WI)
U.S. Navy Hospitalman Christopher Gnem – Hospital corpsman (Stockton, CA)
Pfc. Jack Ryan Ostrovsky – Rifleman (Bend, OR)
Cpl. Wesley A. Rodd – Rifleman (Harris, TX)
Lance Cpl. Chase D. Sweetwood – Rifleman (Portland, OR)
Cpl. Cesar A. Villanueva – Rifleman (Riverside, CA)
