Posted on 09/23/2007 7:46:56 AM PDT by paulat
Unexploded Rocket-Propelled Grenade Impales Army Private in Afghanistan By RUTH REISS
[snip]
One RPG skidded past Lt. Mariani's vehicle. All of the vehicles had to quickly get out of the "kill zone." But before they could get to safety, two rockets hit Pvt. Moss' Humvee.
Staff Sgt. Eric Wynn, 33, the soldier in the front passenger seat, felt one slice through his face. Moss remembers the truck practically lift up. He was thrown up against the Humvee and then moved to return fire.
"I smelled something smoking and I looked down ... and I was smoking," he said.
Wynn turned to tell Moss where to fire and saw the tail fins of the RPG sticking out of Moss' side.
Roughly the length of a baseball bat, an RPG travels at the speed of a bullet. At the front end is the warhead -- a large grenade. The detonator and fuel are contained in the shaft. On the back are its fins, pieces of metal that stick out like legs on a camera tripod. The RPG is the weapon of choice for many of the world's guerillas.
Luckily for Moss, the company medic Spc. Jared Angell, 23, who the soldiers call "Doc," was in his Humvee
[snip]
A Human Bomb The RPG that had plowed into Moss' lower abdomen stretched from one hip to the other. If the RPG went off, it would kill everyone within 30 feet of him. Yet Angell stayed close, bandaging his wounds and stabilizing the weapon so that movement wouldn't cause it to explode.
Moss was still fully conscious, so Angell ordered him to not look down at the injury. He didn't want Moss to panic.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Did you see this?
This reminds me of an incident when I was active duty EOD.
In mid 80’s my EOD team responded to a munitions accident with a base ejecting artillery shell that used ADAM’s mines, very small wedge shaped sub munitions that eject over a battlefield from a arty round.
The projo doesn’t explode it fires a proximity fuze and spews the little sub-munitions all over the ground.
Anyway the round went off in a test facility , and killed two of the workers and a third was en-route to hospital in a Helicopter when we did a quick count of the sub-munitions it was determined that 3 were missing.
Helicopter was notified and met by 2 other members of our team on the hospital landing pad. One of my techs removed the sub munitions on the hospital landing pad with the aid of 2 former USAF surgeons. My troop said the Doc’s in Trauma baulked when the word went out an these two Veteran surgeons were in the hospital and went up to help. One of our techs worked with the 2 surgeons and a surgical nurse and took out those last 3 sub-munitions that had impaled into the workers body.
bttt
You gotta read this to believe it. Maybe you already know about it, but just in case you don’t...
God bless all who serve & their families.
Thank you for posting this paulat.
A GREAT story. Think I had a little allergic reaction while reading it, though...my nose was all stuffed up and my eyes started to leak a bit. :-)
I’m surprised and pleased that this was reported in the MSM, and hope it has the power to open some people’s eyes about the bravery and heart of America’s soldiers.
I read the whole story.It’s amazing there was an Angell there.
bttt
Guenevere, it was in the “Related News” section on the same page as the linked ABC News story (bottom right/pictures/Saving Private Moss). I think it may have been the last picture in the slides. There was a picture of Oh and his bride along with the caption.
America’s finest, that’s all I can think of. The bravest of the brave, the very best America has. Our military is the finest, the bravest, the tenderest and the fiercest. I love ‘em.
Even more impressive!
Amazing American Military Bump!!
Prayers for this soldier.
[Mr] T
what an amazing story!
thank you for the ping!
God Bless them, each and every one.
Wow! Thanks for the ping
The surgeon in the Vietnam incident was Air Force Brig. Gen. James Humphreys. He had previously commanded Wilford Hall Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio. My dad was his deputy commander there. General Humphreys was a great man and a great horseman. He used to ride with us kids at the base stables. We were not surprised at all when he volunteered for the surgery. He was that kind of man.
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