Tough to say which one put me closest to death. THere are the wrong place/wrong time kinds (round fired by a weapon on a tripod about 2k yards buzzed past my ear and flipped my hair before striking the embankment I was climbing and making a good portion of it magically disappear and then...after a few seconds...rain down on me).
There’s the really odd (an extremely physically disabled man with brain damage put a bear hug on me and was methodically cracking my ribcage like a walnut while crushing me against his chest until I felt my lungs ‘touch’ front to back and I saw that long dark tunnel),
I’ll delete medical for space.
There’s the how-stupid-could-I-be when I dropped a kitchen chair upside down and stumbled forward and coming thisclose to impaling my chest on the remains of the splintered leg angled perfectly for the task of spearing m.
There’s intense competition in the stupidity class - many examples: There’s traveling to an Alaskan island and going for a walk without telling the bunkhouse - then getting lost in a whiteout for hours as night fell and realizing no one would know I was missing.
There’s industrial - almost getting crushed repeatedly while dangling on a rope between a boat and a ship that were grinding together, there’s almost capsizing (went WAY past the point of balance) on a foreign trawler during a storm which would prohibit rescue efforts. There’s boarding a foreign trawler in high seas while simultaneously playing dodge-the-block-and-tackle, please-don’t-drop-the-block-through-the-floor-of-the-lifeboat, there-are-no-seatbelts-in-Ahabs-rowboat and I-hope-1950’s-Soviet-winch-technology-will-hold-BOTH-ends-of-this-lifeboat-long-enough.
Apparently there is something God wants me to do first.
I haven’t had time to read all the posts yet but I have found every post well worth reading. I particularly glad that the one who DIDN’T take the bottle of anti-depressants is still with us (you have unfinished work too :) and grateful and proud for the military and first responders. I have to say - Cripplecreeks may still be the best. It caught me and almost knocked me outta my chair laughing.
>Tough to say which one put me closest to death. THere are the wrong place/wrong time kinds (round fired by a weapon on a tripod about 2k yards buzzed past my ear and flipped my hair before striking the embankment I was climbing and making a good portion of it magically disappear and then...after a few seconds...rain down on me).<
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I can relate to that. May 68 south of Saigon my Infantry Company walked up to a battalion strength unit of NVA at a hamlet. I was a few hundred feet from some dug in heavy MG bunkers and was relieved to see a Huey gunship banking in a turn to fire on it. Then to my horror I saw a volley of 2.75 rockets fire from the gunship with one dropping short coming towards my position. I buried my face and the rocket hit a few feet behind me punching shrapnel thru my chest taking down a lung and thru my leg. We were pinned down by heavy fire for 8 hours with no chance of extraction and with only 1 lung working was the longest 8 hrs of my life. They were finally able to get some armor in behind us and get the wounded a mile back for dustoff. I was 18 at the time.