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The US State Department is to confer its third highest award for valor on three US Marine security guards for their heroics after a bomb threat on the American Embassy in Kingston in January this year.

They are Gunnery Sergeant Kuan Huang, Sergeant Kyle Lewis and Lance Corporal Noah Mesimer, who all sprang into action when the Kingston Embassy received a bomb threat during the last weekend in January. The three put their training to the test when a frantic, then threatening phone call came in about a bomb threat.

Sgt. Kyle Lewis received a first call from a Jamaican man who “ranted” about someone out to kill him. In a second phone call, his claims escalated to a bomb threat, which the US marines were able to diffuse and then guide police to the man’s house and into custody within the hour.

Details on the bomb threat on the American Embassy

“At first he didn’t seem hostile but after a certain period of time it really escalated,” Lance Cpl. Noah Mesimer told Marine Corps Times in a phone call mid-May. Because of their quick work, the three marines have been nominated for a meritorious honour award given out by the State Department.

According to the Marine Corps Times, after the first phone call, the man called back, this time escalating his claims.

In the second call to the embassy, the man threated to kill his wife and set off a bomb inside the embassy, killing the Americans who worked there.

Once the bomb threat was made Mesimer, Lewis and the detachment commander, Gunnery Sgt. Kuan Huang, leaped into action. Huang, it was said, took over the phone call, attempting to collect as much information as possible from the man.

Eventually getting his name, address and his phone number, this information was relayed to the regional security officer at the embassy and eventually the Jamaican police. Huang told Marine Corps Times that his experience as a drill instructor helped him navigate the phone call with the distressed man.

Experienced paid off for the marines

“I have a lot of experience talking to recruits, when they had personal problems, they would come to me,” Huang said. He added, “…I am thankful for my previous experience that allowed me to stay calm, collected, take down a lot of notes and allow the caller to finish talking.”

The Marines were able to stay on the phone with the man long enough for local police to show up to his house and safely take him into custody. Though no actual bomb was found, the way the Marines responded to the threat verified the training they go through as Marine security guards.

“One of the things that made their response and actions so spot on was that we had basically the best possible outcome,” Courtney Glass, an assistant regional security officer at the Jamaica embassy, told Marine Corps Times.

“Anytime you could have someone make a threat against the embassy and then locate them within the hour, it doesn’t get much better than that,” Glass said. Lewis added, “we practice and train for these types of events.”

“For us to actually put it into effect and knowing afterward that we actually handled it well, knowing that are training actually paid off, it does actually help that feeling that ‘ hey we are actually fulfilling our mission,’” Lewis explained.

Never had to deal with a bomb threat

In six months of being posted in Kingston, Jamaica, Huang had never had to deal with a bomb threat.

“I’ve never intercepted any call or threats or threats of the facility, and that was the first one,” Huang said.

Lewis posited that a threat like the one they received that night is pretty rare at a post like Kingston, Jamaica, though some embassies are more at risk than others.   

“The threat level changes from place to place, Moscow you don’t really have a lot of distress calls,” Lewis said of one of his previous postings.