January 14, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H301 

[From Los Angeles Times Dec. 29, 2008] 

A SPEEDING TRUCK BOMB, AND A SHARED ACT

OF COURAGE

(By Tony Perry) 

SAN DIEGO.—Two Marines in Iraq saved 

dozens—but not themselves. They’ll be 

awarded the Navy Cross. They had known 

each other only a few minutes, but they will 

be linked forever in what Marine brass say is 

one of the most extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice in the Iraq war. 

Cpl. Jonathan Yale, 21, grew up poor in 

rural Virginia. He had joined the Marine 

Corps to put structure in his life and to help 

support his mother and sister. He was within 

a few days of heading home. 

Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, 19, was from a 

comfortably middle-class suburb on Long Island. As a boy, he had worn military garb, 

and he had felt the pull of adventure and patriotism. He had just arrived in Iraq. 

On April 22, the two were assigned to guard 

the main gate to Joint Security Station Nasser in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, 

once an insurgent stronghold and still a dangerous region. Dozens of Marines and Iraqi 

police lived at the compound, and some were 

still sleeping after all-night patrols when 

Yale and Haerter reported for duty that 

warm, sultry morning. 

Yale, respected for his quiet, efficient manner, was assigned to show Haerter how to 

take over his duties. 

Haerter had volunteered to watch the main 

gate, even though it was considered the most 

hazardous of the compound’s three guard 

stations because it could be approached from 

a busy thoroughfare. 

The sun had barely risen when the two sentries spotted a 20-foot-long truck headed toward the gate, weaving with increasing speed 

through the concrete barriers. Two Iraqi police officers assigned to the gate ran for their 

lives. 

So did several Iraqi police on the adjacent 

street. 

Yale and Haerter tried to wave off the 

truck, but it kept coming. They opened fire, 

Yale with a machine gun, Haerter with an 

M–16. Their bullets peppered the radiator and 

windshield. The truck slowed but kept rolling. 

A few dozen feet from the gate, the truck 

exploded. Investigators found that it was 

loaded with 2,000 pounds of explosives and 

that its driver, his hand on a ‘‘dead-man 

switch,’’ was determined to commit suicide 

and slaughter Marines and Iraqi police. 

The thunderous explosion rocked much of 

Ramadi, interrupting the morning call to 

prayers from the many mosques. A nearby 

mosque and a home were flattened. The blast 

ripped a crater 5 feet deep and 20 feet across 

into the street. Shards of concrete scattered 

everywhere, and choking dust filled the air. 

Haerter was dead; Yale was dying. Three 

Marines about 300 feet away were injured. So 

were eight Iraqi police and two dozen civilians. But several dozen other nearby Marines 

and Iraqi police, while shaken, were unhurt. 

A Black Hawk helicopter was summoned in a 

futile attempt to get Yale to a field hospital 

in time. A sheet was placed over Haerter. 

When it was considered safe to take 

Haerter’s body to a second helicopter, his 

section leader insisted he be covered by an 

American flag. ‘‘We did not want him carried 

out with just a sheet,’’ said Staff Sgt. Kenneth Grooms. 

Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the top Marine in 

Iraq, wanted to know how the attack happened. Like many veteran Marines, he is 

haunted by the memory of the 1983 bombing 

of the barracks in Beirut, when a blast from 

an explosives-laden truck killed 241 U.S. 

service personnel, including 220 Marines. 

Not given to dark thoughts or insecurities, 

Kelly, who commanded Marines in the fight 

for Baghdad and Tikrit in 2003 and Fallouja 

in 2004, admits that the specter of another 

Beirut gives him nightmares as he commands the 22,000 Marines in Iraq. He went to 

Ramadi to interview Iraqi witnesses—a task 

generals usually delegate to subordinates. 

Some Iraqis told him they were incredulous 

that the two Marines had not fled. When Marine technicians restored a damaged security 

camera, the images were undeniable. 

While Iraqi police fled, Haerter and Yale 

had never flinched and never stopped firing 

as the Mercedes truck—the same model used 

in the Beirut bombing—sped directly toward 

them. 

Without their steadfastness, the truck 

would probably have penetrated the compound before it exploded, and 50 or more Marines and Iraqis would have been killed. The 

incident happened in just six seconds. 

‘‘No time to talk it over; no time to call 

the lieutenant; no time to think about their 

own lives or even the American and Iraqi 

lives they were protecting,’’ Kelly said. 

‘‘More than enough time, however, to do 

their duty. They never hesitated or tried to 

escape.’’ 

Yale was always trying to boost the morale of his buddies, said Lance Cpl. Brandon 

Creely, 21, of Boise, Idaho. ‘‘Whenever I was 

down, he’d tell a joke, tell me it’s not as bad 

as it seems.’’ 

Staff Sgt. Grooms, 28, said he knows how 

Haerter should be remembered. ‘‘He was a 

hero,’’ Grooms said, ‘‘and a damn fine person.’’ 

STATEMENT OF MAJOR GENERAL JOHN F. 

KELLY, USMC—IN SUPPORT OF THE NAVY

CROSS RECOMMENDATIONS IN THE CASES OF

CORPORAL JONATHAN T. YALE, USMC AND

LANCE CORPORAL JORDAN C. HAERTER, 

USMC 

The following statement is a compilation of events from my personal 

interview of several Iraqi police men, 

view for a video tape of the entire 

event capture by the Joint Security 

Station’s (JSS) security camera, and 

walking the site. 

At 0745C on 22 April 2008, Joint Security 

Station, JSS, Nasser, Ramadi, Iraq, was attacked by a very large truck bomb with an 

estimate explosive weight over 2,000 lbs. The 

truck was driven by a suicide bomber who 

was consumed in the blast. At the time two 

battalions, 1st Battalion 9th Marines and 2 

Battalion 8th marines were conducting a relief in place at JSS Nasser. The JSS by its 

nature who housed a relatively large number 

of Iraqi police. At the time of the attack two 

Marines, Corporal Jonathan T. Yale and 

Lance Corporal Jordan C. Haerter were 

standing post at the entry control point 

(ECP— along with two Iraqi policemen. At 

least 8 other Iraqi policemen were also on 

duty about 60m away at the intersection 

(Routes Apple and Sophia) of a busy city 

street, and the entrance alley to the JSS in 

the Sophia District of Ramadi. 

Without warning a Mercedes tank truck 

made the turn and immediately accelerated 

negotiating the serpentine careening towards the entryway of the JSS compound. 

The Marines undoubtedly understood immediately what was taking place as they went 

straight to the guns without any escalation 

of force firing continuously until the truck 

lurched to a stop just outside the compound’s gate, and literally a few feet from 

the Marines, when it detonated. Both Marines were killed still firing their weapons. 

Three Marines were also wounded over 100m 

from the event, as were at least eight Iraqi 

officers and 24 civilians. A nearby mosque 

and house were both destroyed, with a number of others houses suffering significant 

damage. The blast crater measured 20 feet in 

diameter and five feet deep. At the time of 

the attack, and because of the ongoing relief 

in place, there were over 50 Marines on site 

with a similar number of Iraqi police officers. It was only due to the bravery of the 

two Marines that a catastrophe was averted, 

but that is exactly why they were there to 

prevent such a bomb from entering the compound and they did exactly that. 

When interviewing several police officers 

separately on 25 April at the JSS they all 

told essentially the same story. When the 

truck turned down the entryway to the JSS 

the tip off that it was not an innocent delivery was that it accelerated through the concrete Jersey walls. The Marines on station 

immediately began to fire then some of the 

police joined in. One of the officers made the 

point that no sane man would have stood 

there and fired—yet two men did. Another 

said he knew the Marines were crazy (he 

meant fearless I think), but this was beyond 

what he’d seen Marines do even when he was 

fighting us as an insurgent two years before. 

A third who was no more than 15 feet from 

the two Marines when the truck turned into 

the alley ran to safety in the few seconds it 

took the truck to negotiate the 60 m to the 

gate (caught on tape). He survived. He told 

me when he observed the truck accelerating 

and the Marines firing he ran but the Marines did not. All were in agreement that had 

the Marines not stood their ground to their 

deaths the truck would have wiped out the 

JSS and everyone in it. 

Subsequent to my taking these interviews 

I viewed a video of the entire event captured 

by our surveillance camera at the entryway 

of the JSS. It took several days to 

forensically recover the images from the 

badly damaged camera. I did not know either 

one of the hero’s, but I have known thousands like them in my career. They will do 

anything we ask them to do—even to their 

deaths. Like the police officers they could 

have run and likely survived, but did not. I 

do not think anyone would have called them 

cowards if they had. They took seriously the 

duties and responsibilities of a Marine on 

post, and stood their ground before they 

would allow anyone or anything to pass. For 

their dedication they lost their lives. Because they did what they did only 2 families 

had their hearts broken on 22 April, rather 

than as many as 50. These families will never 

know how truly close they came to a knock 

on the door that night. 

JOHN F. KELLY, 

Major General, U.S. Marine Corps 

Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary 

f 

Force (Forward). 

HERE WE GO AGAIN: THE SECOND 

HALF OF THE BANK BAILOUT 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. KAPTUR) is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise 

this evening to warn America that here 

we go again. Wall Street, the Bush administration, the chief executor of 

Goldman Sachs Hank Paulson, who in 

his spare time sells U.S. debt to China 

and Saudi Arabia as our Treasury Secretary, are asking to get their hands on 

the second half of the $700 billion bank 

bailout. 

Last fall the administration and Wall 

Street’s chief cheerleader Treasury 

Secretary Paulson scared Congress into 

adopting the first round of Wall Street 


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H302 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 14, 2009 

bailout money. They called it the 

TARP. Some people would call it the 

‘‘TRAP.’’ That was adopted without 

hearings, without debate or amendments, and without proper justification, safeguards, or oversight. Fortunately, the Secretary of Treasury 

abandoned the intended purchase of 

troubled assets and has used the money 

instead to purchase capital in banks; so 

banks are buying banks now. But that 

funding should have gone to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to 

purchase the capital rather than Treasury. He didn’t use the money to do anything about the central part of the 

problem: mortgage workouts, the foreclosure crisis. 

So why do we now have a proposal 

here to give the Secretary of Treasury 

another $350 billion to spend on only 

God knows what? The bill says that $40 

to $100 billion, and that’s a $60 billion 

spread, my friends, is intended for 

some kind of foreclosure relief but 

doesn’t specify how it’s to be accomplished. Congress’s job is to specify. Is 

a $60 billion swing between those two 

numbers the best we can do in estimating the cost of this program? What 

is the remaining $250 billion to $310 billion to be used for? Who decides? Just 

Treasury? If we are going to continue 

putting capital into financial institutions, shouldn’t we at least order the 

Securities and Exchange Commission 

to stop destroying capital through 

market value accounting? What an opportunity for the special interests on 

Wall Street to take control when no 

one here seems to be in control, 6 days 

before our new President is sworn in. 

Today, trying to correct the huge inadequacies of this bill, I went to the 

Rules Committee to prevent more damage and outright financial crimes associated with this, and I asked for two 

amendments, and both were denied. 

The first amendment would have suspended any more money being expended from the first $350 billion, if 

there’s any left, and would stop the 

next $350 billion until the Congressional Oversight Panel established in 

the original law has forensically accounted for each dollar of the original 

$350 billion. Why not examine the effects of the first $350 billion on the 

economy? Why not assess the effect of 

what the Federal Reserve policies in 

lowering their interest rates has been 

on our economy? That amendment, to 

follow the money, was denied. Now, 

here you have an agency that’s selling 

trillions of dollars of our debt, and 

they’re not telling Congress what they 

have done with $350 billion? 

The other amendment that I offered 

would have increased oversight and 

strengthened the role of the Federal 

Deposit Insurance Corporation overseeing TARP funds. It would have provided for oversight by the FDIC directly into the boardrooms of the 

banks that are getting our taxpayer 

money. Don’t we have a right to know 

what they’re doing with it? The FDIC 

is the right agency to oversee that. 

So the Rules Committee denied me. I 

wasn’t expecting they would approve it 

because this seems like a greased deal 

to me, but it shouldn’t be a greased 

deal for the American people. Before 

we send another $350 billion out of the 

door, there ought to be some accountability here. 

The legislation that will be before us 

provides no plan to stop foreclosures, 

which is the root of the problem. In 

fact, there is nothing in there about renegotiation or holding the banks and 

the servicers accountable. The bill continues to do more of the same, which 

simply has not been working, but it 

gives all this power to Treasury, this 

secretive agency that isn’t sharing 

anything. 

The legislation does not help homeowners to defend themselves against 

criminal acts of massive fraud being 

perpetrated against them by Wall 

Street banksters in processing foreclosures. 

The legislation continues to shift 

both the risk and the cost of the program off corporations and their boards 

of directors and their executives who 

perpetrated this scheme on the taxpayers. And the legislation does not address the root of the problem: foreclosures themselves. So it will be just 

as ineffective on Main Street as the 

first round of TARP in addressing the 

core problems. 

Truly TARP is a trap. 

Mr. Speaker, I would like to place in 

the RECORD additional comments about 

the impact, sadly, of the original bailout bill on my district and end with 

saying the intent of TARP was to stabilize our financial system, which 

means our housing industry. It’s not 

happening, and we shouldn’t give them 

more money. 

RECOMMENDATIONS

This bill is not correcting the root of the 

problem and will not achieve the goal of preventing foreclosures and keeping people in 

their homes. There are many effective foreclosure prevention strategies being deployed 

by attorneys and advocates and we need to 

translate these into systemic solutions. 

This Congress must embark upon a full investigation of how the ‘‘Shadow Banking Sector’’ created by the Wall Street Investment 

Banks post-repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act 

(Gramm-Leach-Bliley) constructed a private 

money-creation system that in 10 short years 

equals or exceeds the assets of all regulated 

banks nationwide. 

In short, there are solutions. We need a 

consumer-centric model. What we have now is 

so creditor-centric it will eventually lead to a 

complete collapse because consumers/taxpayers cannot handle the burden. 

OHIO’S NINTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

My district has been hard hit by the foreclosure crisis. Last year, in my home county of 

Lucas, another 4,100 homes were foreclosed, 

part of the 10 percent of my district’s local 

housing stock that has been lost over the last 

2.5 years. As foreclosure rates continue to rise 

in Ohio and across our Nation, it’s pretty obvious that the Federal responses, such as the 

$700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program 

(TARP) rescue, are not working on the Main 

Streets of our communities. 

The intent of the TARP bailout was to help 

stabilize our financial system, which includes 

in large measure our housing industry. Yet, we 

see financial institutions foreclosing on families 

rather than working to stabilize families in their 

homes. A stable home permits people to focus 

on obtaining and maintaining employment, 

purchasing food, and contributing to society in 

positive ways rather than relying on social 

services funded by State and Federal dollars. 

Furthermore, we see communities falling 

apart. Community members and local banks 

are effectively locked out of the opportunity to 

bid on these properties and reinvest in themselves because monies from the Department 

of Housing and Urban Development which 

would allow community banks and members 

to purchase foreclosed homes have not yet arrived. We all know that you are more likely to 

do something for your neighbor than for someone you do not know across the country. Too 

often, Wall Street’s actions engage out of town 

developers and investors who purchase 

homes anywhere they can, not just in their 

hometown—without any connection to the 

people and the community. This situation cannot continue. 

We have the opportunity to direct positive 

change to restore our Main Streets and communities. 

f 

WINSTON-SALEM DASH—WINSTONSALEM’S NEW MINOR LEAGUE 

BASEBALL TEAM 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. FOXX) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I suspect 

that every Member of this body would 

stand up here at some point and say 

that he or she lives in the best place in 

the United States or has the best district. I know that I have the best district in North Carolina, the Fifth District. It is a very diverse district, populated by many great people. The district has many, many attributes that 

people come to visit us for and come to 

live in the district. 

But I want to highlight tonight one 

of the very positive things that’s happening in my district this year and to 

call attention to that because so often 

we’re talking about negative things on 

the floor. It’s not the best of times economically in our country. But I think 

we need to talk some about positive 

things that are happening, and I want 

to talk tonight a little bit about a very 

positive thing that’s happening in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 

Winston-Salem, and it’s two towns 

that came together many years ago, 

those two towns were settled in the 

mid 1700s by a group of very devout, 

hardworking Moravians, and many of 

their descendants still live in the area. 

What Winston-Salem has decided to 

do in the last couple of years is to work 

on building a new stadium, a new ballpark, for its minor league baseball 

team and also has been working on 

coming up with a new name for that 

minor league baseball team. Later this 

year we expect to see a new ballpark in 

downtown Winston-Salem, which will 


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