Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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This is a student project, so I really hope it shows up somewhere on-line like YouTube. I wouldn't even mind paying to see it on Amazon streaming.
New Short Film Pays Tribute to Marines Who Stopped Truck Bomb Attack in Ramadi
https://www.military.com/daily-news...nes-who-stopped-truck-bomb-attack-ramadi.html
Six seconds. Not enough time to do much of anything, but Cpl. Jonathan Yale and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter made their last six seconds on Earth count in a way that has passed into Marine Corps legend.
Their astonishing heroism in stopping a truck bomb attack that threatened the lives of scores of Marines and Iraqis is now the subject of a short film that will have its first screening next month.
Joshua DeFour, the student director of the movie, said his main challenge was avoiding caricatures in portraying the two young riflemen.
"I felt this sense of responsibility" to depict the 21-year-old Yale and 19-year-old Haerter as the complicated human beings they were on the fateful morning of April 22, 2008, said DeFour, a former Marine sergeant and combat correspondent who served in Afghanistan.
His 23-minute film "The 11th Order" will get its first screening May 19 at the Hogg Memorial Auditorium at the University of Texas in Austin as part of his graduate thesis, but he said it wouldn't have happened without the approval of the mothers of the two Marines -- Rebecca Yale and JoAnn Lyles.
DeFour said he spoke with Rebecca Yale for two hours to get her permission to proceed with the project. "The gist was that it was still a very painful thing to bring up," he said.
Yale and Haerter gave their own lives to stop an attack that likely would have killed the 50 Marines and 100 partnered Iraqis behind the gate they were guarding as sentries in the flashpoint town of Ramadi.
The title of the movie came from the Marine Corps' 11th general order for sentries, which guided Yale and Haerter's actions: "To be especially watchful at night and during the time for challenging. To challenge all persons on or near my post and to allow no one to pass without proper authority."
The focal point of the film is the first speech General Kelly gave on the incident on Nov. 13, 2010, to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis. He gave the remarks four days after the death of his son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, who was killed in Afghanistan.
Someone, Kelly said, decided that the two would stand guard that morning. Yale, as the corporal, would be in charge. Haerter would follow his lead.
Yale and Haerter were from different units: Yale from 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, which was preparing to return to the U.S., and Haerter from 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, which had just arrived in Iraq.
Kelly surmised how the assignment may have happened: A sergeant said, "'OK, you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized person or vehicles pass. You clear on that?'"
"And I'm sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like, 'Yeah, sergeant, we got it. We know what we're doing -- screw you,'" Kelly said. "Again, I'm prior enlisted, so I know how they think."
The two Marines were from different backgrounds, but "they were cut from the same bolt of cloth and they had the same steel in their backs," he said.
Kelly said he learned from a security camera that survived the explosion that it had taken exactly six seconds from when the bomb-laden truck entered the alley to when it detonated.
"I suppose 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. No time to talk it over," he said. "It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up.
"For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines firing their weapons non-stop. The truck's windshield explodes into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart," Kelly said.
"Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder-width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could.
"They had only one second left to live, and I think they knew. The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God," he said. "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."
Yale, with his M249 squad automatic weapon, and Haerter, with his M16 rifle, stopped the blue truck weaving its way past Jersey barriers before it could get through the alleyway and past the gate, or Entry Control Point, to a makeshift barracks where the Marines and Iraqis rested.
The two Marines blew out the windshield, likely killing the driver and stopping the truck just feet in front of them. But a "deadman's switch" set off the vehicle-borne improvised explosive device that investigative personnel later estimated had the force of 2,000 pounds of high explosives.
Yale and Haerter had never met before that morning, but worked together in the six-second mission that stopped the truck.
Yale was from Burkeville, Virginia. Rebecca Yale told The Associated Press that her son was a free spirit, a skateboarder and a paintballer, who "also didn't mind sitting home with his Mama to watch a chick flick with a box of Kleenex between us. He was the best boy you could ask for."
Haerter was from Sag Harbor, New York, at the east end of Long Island, an old whaling town and now something of an artists' and writers' colony, where Jimmy Buffett and Steven Spielberg park their yachts.
The story leading to the "six seconds" at the gate is told in flashbacks bouncing from Kelly's speech to the streets of Ramadi, DeFour said.
For the part of Kelly, he recruited actor Colin Hoffmeister, who appeared in the "Sons of Anarchy" series. Michael Grant, who has credits from "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," has the role of Haerter. And Noah Gray-Cabey, from "Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists," was cast as Yale.
To recreate Kelly's speech, DeFour received permission from Camp Pendleton to use an auditorium on the base, with Marines playing the audience.
"That was really important to me," he said.
The Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in California, which was the set for Iraq in "American Sniper," was used for the Ramadi scenes in "The 11th Order."
New Short Film Pays Tribute to Marines Who Stopped Truck Bomb Attack in Ramadi
https://www.military.com/daily-news...nes-who-stopped-truck-bomb-attack-ramadi.html
Six seconds. Not enough time to do much of anything, but Cpl. Jonathan Yale and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter made their last six seconds on Earth count in a way that has passed into Marine Corps legend.
Their astonishing heroism in stopping a truck bomb attack that threatened the lives of scores of Marines and Iraqis is now the subject of a short film that will have its first screening next month.
Joshua DeFour, the student director of the movie, said his main challenge was avoiding caricatures in portraying the two young riflemen.
"I felt this sense of responsibility" to depict the 21-year-old Yale and 19-year-old Haerter as the complicated human beings they were on the fateful morning of April 22, 2008, said DeFour, a former Marine sergeant and combat correspondent who served in Afghanistan.
His 23-minute film "The 11th Order" will get its first screening May 19 at the Hogg Memorial Auditorium at the University of Texas in Austin as part of his graduate thesis, but he said it wouldn't have happened without the approval of the mothers of the two Marines -- Rebecca Yale and JoAnn Lyles.
DeFour said he spoke with Rebecca Yale for two hours to get her permission to proceed with the project. "The gist was that it was still a very painful thing to bring up," he said.
Yale and Haerter gave their own lives to stop an attack that likely would have killed the 50 Marines and 100 partnered Iraqis behind the gate they were guarding as sentries in the flashpoint town of Ramadi.
The title of the movie came from the Marine Corps' 11th general order for sentries, which guided Yale and Haerter's actions: "To be especially watchful at night and during the time for challenging. To challenge all persons on or near my post and to allow no one to pass without proper authority."
The focal point of the film is the first speech General Kelly gave on the incident on Nov. 13, 2010, to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis. He gave the remarks four days after the death of his son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, who was killed in Afghanistan.
Someone, Kelly said, decided that the two would stand guard that morning. Yale, as the corporal, would be in charge. Haerter would follow his lead.
Yale and Haerter were from different units: Yale from 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, which was preparing to return to the U.S., and Haerter from 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, which had just arrived in Iraq.
Kelly surmised how the assignment may have happened: A sergeant said, "'OK, you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized person or vehicles pass. You clear on that?'"
"And I'm sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like, 'Yeah, sergeant, we got it. We know what we're doing -- screw you,'" Kelly said. "Again, I'm prior enlisted, so I know how they think."
The two Marines were from different backgrounds, but "they were cut from the same bolt of cloth and they had the same steel in their backs," he said.
Kelly said he learned from a security camera that survived the explosion that it had taken exactly six seconds from when the bomb-laden truck entered the alley to when it detonated.
"I suppose 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. No time to talk it over," he said. "It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up.
"For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines firing their weapons non-stop. The truck's windshield explodes into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart," Kelly said.
"Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder-width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could.
"They had only one second left to live, and I think they knew. The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God," he said. "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."
Yale, with his M249 squad automatic weapon, and Haerter, with his M16 rifle, stopped the blue truck weaving its way past Jersey barriers before it could get through the alleyway and past the gate, or Entry Control Point, to a makeshift barracks where the Marines and Iraqis rested.
The two Marines blew out the windshield, likely killing the driver and stopping the truck just feet in front of them. But a "deadman's switch" set off the vehicle-borne improvised explosive device that investigative personnel later estimated had the force of 2,000 pounds of high explosives.
Yale and Haerter had never met before that morning, but worked together in the six-second mission that stopped the truck.
Yale was from Burkeville, Virginia. Rebecca Yale told The Associated Press that her son was a free spirit, a skateboarder and a paintballer, who "also didn't mind sitting home with his Mama to watch a chick flick with a box of Kleenex between us. He was the best boy you could ask for."
Haerter was from Sag Harbor, New York, at the east end of Long Island, an old whaling town and now something of an artists' and writers' colony, where Jimmy Buffett and Steven Spielberg park their yachts.
The story leading to the "six seconds" at the gate is told in flashbacks bouncing from Kelly's speech to the streets of Ramadi, DeFour said.
For the part of Kelly, he recruited actor Colin Hoffmeister, who appeared in the "Sons of Anarchy" series. Michael Grant, who has credits from "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," has the role of Haerter. And Noah Gray-Cabey, from "Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists," was cast as Yale.
To recreate Kelly's speech, DeFour received permission from Camp Pendleton to use an auditorium on the base, with Marines playing the audience.
"That was really important to me," he said.
The Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in California, which was the set for Iraq in "American Sniper," was used for the Ramadi scenes in "The 11th Order."
