Madigan Estates welcomes marines on Veterans Day

By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
    For the second year, the U.S. Marine Corps League Detachment held a Veterans Day ceremony at the Madigan Estates nursing facility for about 11 service men and women and their families.
    The ceremony began with the reading of the Presidential Proclamation of Veterans Day 2012. Then Gunnery Sgt. Howard Hickman spoke to the veterans on the changes in the military since they served.
    “I’m not far from sitting in here, too,” said Hickman. “I will have my turn.”
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Gloria Austin
VETERANS DAY — Celebrating Veterans Day at Madigan Estates are, from left, Halbert “Hallie” Miller, Phyllis West and Ruth Matheson.
    Hickman described more changes in the U.S. Marine Corps and Navy, as opposed to other branches of service. He spoke on how names to describe certain aspects of the military had changed to become more politically correct. For example, there is no more brig. It is now known as a correctional facility.
    When Hickman went  into the U.S. Marine Corps, he was issued an M-14, which had replaced the M-1.
    “Weapons changed big time,” he said. “An M-14 was like going somewhere with a deer rifle.”
    After the M-14 came the M-16, which Hickman noted, “looked like a plastic toy Mattel made.” Before Hickman was discharged, his weapon changed to an A-1 and then an A-2.
    “I stayed in more than 20 years,” he said. “I’ve been gone so long, they have gone to the A-4.”
    He spoke on the changes in uniforms and acronyms to integrated units and females in combat.
    Hickman began to read a story to go along with a photograph placed on the table by each veteran’s chair. Hickman started to read the story, but was choked up, handing his paper to Chaplain David Rowe to read.
    The photograph was a still picture taken from a digital recording of an event that happened on April 22, 2008 in Ramadi, Iraq.
    Two Marines, Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, a rifleman with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, RCT-1, of Virginia, and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, a rifleman with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, from Long Island, N.Y., stood their post, just as they’ve done numerous times before. It was a standard length watch in a small checkpoint protected by concrete barriers,  overlooking a small gravel road, lined with palm trees leading to their entry control point, reported Lance Cpl. Casey Jones, a combat correspondent stationed in Camp Ramadi, Iraq.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Gloria Austin
MEMORY LANE — Joseph Levasseur looks at an old photograph during a Veterans Day celebration at Madigan Estates Sunday.
    “They were part of the Walking Dead,” read Rowe.
    They may have been different colors, but they were Marines. They were brothers as close, or closer, than if they had the same mother. They stood guard in what was considered to be the “most dangerous city on earth.”
    Rowe explained that the Marines had received orders from their squad leader, who said, “Okay you clowns. Stand this post and let no unauthorized person or vehicle pass — you clear?”
    Haerter and Yale watched a large blue truck turn down the alley way 60 yards out. The truck sped through the Jersey walls, stopping just short of the two Marines. Realizing the vehicle’s intention, 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 both Marines.
    Rowe recounted how when the fire fight began, the Iraqis ran for cover. Through tears, one man said, “We ran like any normal man to save their life. But, what we learned at that very instance was that Marines aren’t normal. 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.”
    According to official reports, the heroic actions of Haerter and Yale saved the lives of the 33 Marines and 21 Iraqi Police, as well as numerous civilians at the entry control point, reported Jones.
    Twenty-four brick homes were destroyed or damaged and a Mosque 100 yards away collapsed,  and the engine of the truck came to rest 200 yards away from where it exploded. Explosive experts reckoned the blast was made up of 2,000 pounds of explosive, Rowe read.
    “Because they didn’t have it in their DNA to run from danger – they saved their Iraqi and American brothers in arms,” Rowe conveyed.
    In the face of a committed enemy, Haerter and Yale stood their ground,” wrote Jones. “Both Marines displayed heroic, self-sacrificing actions and truly lived up to the Corps values of honor, courage, and commitment.”
    Haerter and Yale have been nominated for a Silver Star, the third highest award in the military. Haerter and Yale were both posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal and the Combat Action Ribbon.
    “They stood their ground, side by side, feet shoulder width apart, firing their weapons for six seconds,” recounted Rowe from the article.  “It was not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag or even their lives or deaths. But it was more than enough time for these brave young men to do their duty. That is the kind of people who are on watch, all over the world for us today, whether they are in the Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army or Coast Guard.”
    The U.S. Marine Corps League Detachment presented the Madigan Estates veterans with a framed American flag. The group hopes to have a glass case in the nursing facility with the flag on top and memorabilia added in recognition and honor of those who served.
    To close, Bernie McMann recalled his family’s involvement in war through the years.
    “I  appreciate what you gentlemen and ladies have done over the course of history to help the United States of America,” he said. “I’ve lived in your households. I’ve heard your stores. And, I appreciate them very much.”
    One of the younger members in the U.S. Marine Corps Detachment, Andrew Marciniak said, “Folks in your generation, we haven’t forgotten.”
    Marciniak has been out of the Marines for more than 20 years, but he reminded those veterans, the Marine Corps still teaches about what they did.
    “We remember the battles from your era,” he said. “We remember the names and we pay attention to other heroes from other services. We still remember who you are and what you did. We may not remember every single name of every single rifleman who stepped foot on a beach, but we remember what you did and where you got us.”
    Marciniak explained the past history comforted him and other Marines.
    “Any time we trod on a beach on a foreign shore, you all had come before us,” he said.