JOHN 15:13

[Suzuki Johnny]

This is a bit of a read,but worth it.

*If you'd like to know more about Trump's pick for Homeland Security, USMC
Gen. John Kelly, please read the speech that he gave just 4 days after he
lost his son in combat. One can hardly conceive of the enormous grief held
quietly within General Kelly as he spoke.*
*Even if you've read this before, read it again and then forward it to your
friends......*

*"The Last Six Seconds"*

*On Nov 13, 2010, Lt General John Kelly, USMC, gave a speech to the Semper
Fi Society of St. Louis, MO. This was four days after his son, Lt Robert
Kelly, USMC, was killed by an IED while on his 3rd Combat tour. During his
speech, General Kelly spoke about the dedication and valor of our young men
and women who step forward each and every day to protect us.*
*During the speech, he never mentioned the loss of his own son. He closed
the speech with the moving account of the last six seconds in the lives of
two young Marines who died with rifles blazing to protect their brother
Marines.*
*"I will leave you with a story about the kind of people they are, about
the quality of the steel in their backs, about the kind of dedication they
bring to our country while they serve in uniform and forever after as
veterans. Two years ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi
forces, in fact, the 22 ND of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions,
1/9 "The Walking Dead," and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi. One battalion
in the closing days of their deployment going home very soon, the other
just starting its seven-month combat tour. Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan
Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively,
one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance
gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines.
The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police,
also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in Ramadi, a
city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by Al Qaeda.
Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter,
and a mother and sister who lived with him and whom he supported as well.
He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000.*
*Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle class white kid from Long Island.
They were from two completely different worlds. Had they not joined the
Marines they would never have met each other, or understood that multiple
America's exist simultaneously depending on one's race, education level,
economic status, and where you might have been born. But they were Marines,
combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because
of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born
of the same woman.*
*The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure
went something like, "Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no
unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass. You clear?"*
*I am also sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison
something like, "Yes Sergeant," with just enough attitude that made the
point without saying the words, "No kidding, we know what we're doing."
They then relieved two other Marines on watch and took up their post at the
entry control point of Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section
of Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq.*
*A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way - perhaps
60-70 yards in length, and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete
jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and
detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry
houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The
truck's engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a house
down before it stopped. Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made
of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two died, and because these two young
infantrymen didn't have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150
of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.*
*When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it
happened I called the regimental commander for details as something about
this struck me as different. Marines dying or being seriously wounded is
commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand
their ground and do their duty, and even die in the process, if that is
what the mission takes. But this just seemed different. The regimental
commander had just returned from the site and he agreed, but reported that
there were no American witnesses to the event - just Iraqi police. I
figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually happened and
then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I'd have to
do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the
bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had
any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer.=
*I traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen
Iraqi police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down
into the alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the
serpentine. They all said, "We knew immediately what was going on as soon
as the two Marines began firing." The Iraqi police then related that some
of them also fired, and then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the
explosion. All survived. Many were injured, some seriously. One of the
Iraqis elaborated and with tears welling up said, "They'd run like any
normal man would to save his life." "What he didn't know until then," he
said, "And what he learned that very instant, was that Marines are not
normal."*

*Choking past the emotion he said, "Sir, in the name of God, no sane man
would have stood there and done what they did. No sane man. They saved us
all."*
*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 half-way 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 non-stop the truck's windshield exploding into shards of glass as
their rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the ( I deleted) 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.*

*We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he could bestow
to man while he lived on this earth - freedom. We also believe he gave us
another gift nearly as precious - our soldiers, sailors, airmen, U S
Customs and Border Patrol, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines - to safeguard that
gift and guarantee no force on this earth can ever steal it away.*
*It has been my distinct honor to have been with you here today. Rest
assured our America, this experiment in democracy started over two
centuries ago, will forever remain the "land of the free and home of the
brave" so long as we never run out of tough young Americans who are willing
to look beyond their own self-interest and comfortable lives, and go into
the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt down, and kill,
those who would do us harm.*

*God Bless America, and SEMPER FIDELIS!"*

*IT WOULD BE NICE (GREAT!) TO SEE the message spread if more would pass it
on. Semper Fi, God Bless America and God Bless the United States Marine
Corps...*

*Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever.*

[HARRIS]

INCREDIBLE ! HOW DO YOU FIND THIS STUFF, AND THANKS FOR POSTING TO SHARE AND INFORM ....

[Herb]

I read this yesterday, couldn't answer it then.

When people tell me all young people are snowflakes, or plain druggie deadbeats, I tell them to look to the military for the good ones.

I spent 30 years working with men, and women, just like these, people that would not back down from a challenge or their duty.

Yeah, I was in the air wing, but the people I worked for, with, and worked for me, were not 9-5 college idiot snowflakes. These were people that worked until the job was done. 10 hour days were normal, 12-14 hours were not uncommon, and while they bitched, they did it. We had one guy that stayed 3 days past his EAS to finish a difficult job that he started. No one ask him to do it, he did it out of dedication to duty and self respect.

These men and women are not not satisfied with getting by, they actually look for challenges and have the ability to solve difficult problems by being able to think about how things work and why they are not doing what they are supposed to do. These people don't shy away from difficult situations, they actually seek them out. They do these things not because they expect anything special for it, but because they have self respect and the only reward they are looking for is satisfaction in a job well done.

These are the people that corporate should be looking to hire, instead of worrying about the amount of education a person has, they should be willing to train the ones with a real work ethic, something that college DOESN'T teach. If anything, college teaches just the opposite.