Posted on 03/30/2008 6:57:50 AM PDT by Mac1
A Royal Marine could receive the highest award for gallantry after he saved the lives of his comrades by throwing himself onto an exploding grenade in Afghanistan, it has been reported.
Lance Corporal Matt Croucher amazingly survived the incident despite shrapnel peppering his helmet during the explosion.
L/Cpl Croucher's backpack was thrown more than 30ft in the explosion
His extraordinary courage, which could lead to a citation for the Victoria Cross, came after a tripwire booby-trap was stepped on during a nighttime mission outside the town of Sangin, Helmand province.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Lance Corporal Matt Croucher is truly a hero.
Wow !
Sounds like the Royal Marines have a new favorite hero.
Would sure be proud to go in to combat with a guy like this.
“Sounds like the Royal Marines have a new favorite hero.”
And he’s a part-timer; wonder what he does for a living?
...
The marine's backpack, thought to contain ammunition, was thrown more than 30ft and sent a burning radio battery flying through the air.
...
L/Cpl Croucher, who suffered a bleeding nose and shock, was saved by the special plating inside his Osprey body armour.
Wow, just WOW. INCREDIBLE bravery plast very fast thinging!!!
He makes folks proud to be Brittish in his part time job and leaps tall buildings in his regular job.
I can't believe he lived.
I would go to church everyday for the rest of my life, cause everyday after that "grenade" day, is a bonus.
Amen, and thanks to all those fighting the good fight for freedom throughout the world.
> Holy Crap!..... If he was in the United States armed forces that would probably get him a MOH.
No probably about it. Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham of Scio, NY was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on January 11, 2007 for using his helmet and his body to smother an exploding Mills Bomb to save his buddies on April 14, 2004, in Iraq near the Syrian border.
“Holy Crap!..... If he was in the United States armed forces that would probably get him a MOH. “
Well, countries don’t give out their highest awards for bravery like confetti, but all the same, I bet there’ll be something or other which means he isn’t awarded the VC, like, he used his back (which had a backpack on) instead of his front which would have got him killed. Typical.
It only seems appropriate to put this heroic act in British terms: Valour.
The VC is the British army equivalent of a MOH.
Cpl. Dunham almost survived that incident. The helmet shielded him from most of the shrapnel, but a piece hit him under the chin and lodged in his brain. He died eight days later at Bethesda.
A true hero in every sense of the word.
....... I'm sure it happened so fast that he put the first thing on it he could.....
I was in a class with maybe 20-30 guys and the DI was showing us a grenade and how to use it properly. We were inside and he was in the front of the class. He pulled the pin and the grenade "slipped out of his hand".
NOBODY jumped on it...... I was about 4 or 5 rows back and didn't realize I could flip myself backwards and run that fast.
It had some sort of "bang" fuse and just made a loud pop.
But the DI took out a tape measure to show us how "accidents" could kill us and the distances that most would have been badly wounded.
Oh...... he also mentioned that none of us were Marines yet and that none of us would earn the MOH. I'm not saying that I didn't cr@p in my pants, but I'm not going to swear to God about it either.
I don't care if the guy put his boots on the greanade..... it was a brave and honorable thing the man did.
Front...Back...sideways....getting something on top of it.... those things are very bad when they explode.
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