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 ...
NP
I watched this on 20/20 on Friday night. From the medic to the surgeons to the explosive expert, they all saved his life while risking their own. Would anyone (with the exception of the Libs) expect anything less of our soldiers and Marines?
A question: He was interveiwed wearing his uniform. Is he still active duty?
Were his fellow Marines honored for what they did for him in the field?
I remember it as an American soldier who was in the hatch of a tank and got it in the shoulder.
I also heard from someone who was in country that an ARVN soldier with a similar injury was "treated" by Vietnamese doctors who put him in an open field and shot until the round detonated...
You're not the only one. What a story! What a soldier! Bless those that cared for him.
Not Red Dwarf related, but was pinged to pass this on to everyone else.
Were his fellow Marines honored for what they did for him in the field?
Yes, and yes.
Read the story...it's at the end.
"There are no better men than our soldiers."
A truly amazing story. Be sure to read the whole article.
This, not the fabricated enemy propaganda (insurgents, media, Murtha) of "Haditha", is the American fighting man.
Thank you.
Geez, where’s the “kleenex alert”!. I read it out loud to my husband and choking back tears as I did so!
What an amazing tale, but then, what an amazing military we have!
God bless them all!
Sorry...I had to use the original title (which sucked, bigtime) and then I had to try to relay what the story was about...no more room.
In a world rife with insanity, they define what it is to be Human, to be Americans! God Bless them!
That’s fine, paulat! Just kidding!
Thanks for posting the article.
Makes me prouder of our military every day!
This “Danger UXB” (unexploded bomb) episode surely will get multiple
pages in any honest history of the liberation/pacification of Iraq.
And show what a stand-up bunch of human beings the Coaltion troops really are.
Compared to the “cut-and-run” Iraqis that are now (surely for many of
them) getting a free pass to the USA.
For NOT standing and fighting.
Like today’s Coalition/American warriors.
Or the American grunts that were in “for the duration” when saving
Europe from itself in WWII.
Bush will boost flow of Iraqi refugees
Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
| Sep. 23, 2007 | RICHARD S. DUNHAM
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1900633/posts
I’m sure there are some Iraqis that have so endangered themselves and
their families by assisting the Coalition...or persecuted Iraqi Christians,
for which only a direct entry into the USA is just about the best
(and maybe only) answer to protecting them.
But I can’t help compare the less-admirable of that cohort to the
Bill Mauldin GIs that didn’t get much of break while taking that free
“European Grand Tour” from the beaches of Normandy to the interior of
The Third Reich.
YOIKS! Yes!
I just finished reading this and went to the other room to share it with my husband.
He told me he had been thinking about the young Chinese woman-(Free Republic thread 2 days ago)- who was found to have multiple needles in her body becasue her grandparents stuck them in her when she was little in hopes to do away with her and have a grandson instead...
..He said it shows the absolute depravity of man...
I then told him this story!.....this restores!
Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound.
God bless those selfless, brave/courageous men who put others before themselves.
What amazing soldiers we have!
Ditto!
This story needs to be retold, over and over.
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