"I met someone who had a phosphorus grenade go off about a foot from his face. Not a pretty sight...."
That reminds me of Michael Crichton's book "Prey". The female security guard who turned out to be bad had a vicious scar on her face because of a phosphorous grenade in the Balkans or wherever.
The guy I met was named Dave Roever. He served in Vietnam in 1969. The WP grenade he was holding was triggered by a sniper bullet. The phosphorus burned off his face and burned the skin off his chest down though the muscle. He said he looked down and could see his heart beating. In an attempt to quench the burning he jumped in the river. WP burns underwater. He was still burning when medics picked him up and put him on a stretcher. He burned right through it.
The most amazing part of his story has to do with his wife who is still a very attractive woman. When she visited him in the hospital he was so disfigured that she walked right past his bed. When she found him, by reading the chart on his bed, she bent down and kissed what was left of his face. Dave said he was ashamed of his face and apologized that he would never look good to her again.
Brenda smiled and replied, "You were never very good looking anyway."
Her love probably helped him recover more than all the medical care he received.