The Wikipedia entry on Hexum has some very nice information about Hexum’s mother who had his brain-dead body flown to San Francisco so his organs could give life to others. What a selfless act for grieving mother to do!
When I was WW2 re-enacting, the Germans would use wood- tipped blanks in their MG34 and MG42 machine guns so they would feed correctly. Every blank firing adapter (BFA) had six knife edges to cutup the wooden projectile as it left the muzzle for safety. Those carrying the standard Kar 98 rifle were warned NOT to use MG blanks because as the ammunition aged, the wooden bullets hardened. The effect was the wooden bullet acted like a ball round at ranges out to a 100 or more yards.
Guess what? Yup, some moron put MG ammo with wood bullets in a Kar 98 and shot an Allied re-enactor. the wound was not life threatening, but the victim went to the hospital. After that, all the German troops with rifles that could accept the 7.92 wood-tipped blank had all their ammo checked by Allied re-enactors.