Marine gets impaled through leg by dud RPG. - Polidicks

[QUOTE] If it were a movie, the moment would play slowly. The big, boyish eyes of 23-year-old Marine Cpl. Perez Winder would widen. His lips would part. The sound of chaos around him would be muted as he watched a rocket-propelled grenade zooming toward him. Then, snapped back to real time, Winder would look down and think: “Oh, crap! I have an RPG in my leg!” The whole thing, the entire, awful metal Nerf football-looking RPG was lodged inside his mangled leg. It was maybe a foot long. Its tail — fins, kind of — poked out. In his shock, the soldier instinctively grabbed his radio to call for help, not realizing that it was totaled. Winder didn’t feel pain. He didn’t feel anything. Adrenaline numbed him. Another day in Musa Qala It was mid-January in eastern Afghanistan. The Marine unit that Winder led had been deployed for four of their assigned seven months. January 12 was like most days they’d seen in Musa Qala, the Fortress of Moses, in Helmand Province, a lawless and desolate stretch in southwestern Afghanistan where Pashtun tribes lived. It was hell there for American troops. Winder’s men had taken fire several times. Musa was a Taliban stronghold. Among many other dangerous jobs the Marines had, they were tasked with investigating when reports came in that an improvised explosive device had been found in the area. They got that kind of call on this day. So. They went to check it out, to verify that it was indeed the type of crude bomb that had killed thousands of Americans during the nearly 11-year war. Secure, verify, log, remove. That’s what they did. This call was no different. The IED they were called to check was legit. When they finished their work, the Marines packed up and were headed back to the base. It’s unclear who fired the RPG that hit Winder. But it came from the south, a direction where the unit had caught fire before. In the seconds after the Marines scrambled, they realized Winder was down. They ran to him and realized, in an awesomely frightening moment, they were looking down at an unexploded grenade. Marines do what they have to do. It was no different in this case. One of the troops leaned over Winder and joked, “I’m glad I have my protective glasses on.” A terrifying vote The unit lifted and moved the wounded Marine quickly to a secure spot where they could avoid being hit by any more incoming fire. They tied a tourniquet and called for assistance. A U.S. Army Medivac team that happened to be flying already was radioed. Pilot Capt. Kevin Doo should head toward Winder’s location. He listened as he was told Winder’s situation. The crew understood the stakes immediately. Moving Winder into their helicopter meant moving the RPG. The device could explode at any minute. It could go off while they made the 65-mile flight to the nearest medical facility. All aboard could die. At the very least, medics working over Winder could take devastating shrapnel wounds if the RPG exploded. “There was quite a bit of alarm among the crew at the time, as you can imagine,” Doo said. “Each of us on the aircraft had to agree to take this patient on,” said Spc. Mark Edens, one of the medics aboard. Each medic on the helicopter voted. It was unanimous. They were going to try to save the soldier’s life. ‘You have an RPG in your leg’ Winder would have likely bled out if the RPG had hit his femoral artery. The device was lodged only a few millimeters away. When the medics touched down, troops lifted Winder and placed him in the helicopter. Incredibly, he was still alert. “Are we good?” Winder shouted. The bird lifted off and flew to the nearest medical unit. Every minute felt like an hour. They landed at a base, and Winder was gingerly removed. By this time, he had started to feel. He asked Navy trauma nurse Lt. Cmdr. James Gennari for more painkillers. Though the medicine was thick in his veins at this point, Winder was still clear-headed enough to notice that there didn’t seem to be a rush of medics around his gurney. “Where is everybody?” he asked. “You have an RPG in your leg, and everybody’s staying away from you,” Gennari answered. He decided to tend to Winder alone thinking, “I am not going to ask somebody to do what I am not going to do.” Winder fully realized, “I’m not the one being protected. I am the one being protected from.” He was quiet. “I promise you,” Gennari told Winder. “I will not leave you until that thing is out of your leg.” “Cool,” Winder uttered, and then passed out. An unusual recovery With Winder knocked out, explosives expert Army Staff Sgt. Benjamin Summerfield came to help and began the crude but necessary work of getting that RPG out of his body. Gennari grabbed the fins of the weapon protruding from Winder’s flesh. The RPG budged a little. An explosives expert stood next to Gennari and gingerly wrapped his fingers around the device. The RPG was stuck. The two then pulled the fins downward toward Winder’s feet and yanked again. Finally, the hulking metal came loose from Winder’s flesh, and a specialist carried the device. The medic stuffed the gaping hole in Winder’s leg with sterile cotton and tightened his tourniquet. He was carried into surgery. Days later, Winder woke up in a military hospital in Germany. He opened his eyes and saw nurses. He immediately reached down to check to see whether he still had his leg. He felt for the leg that had been ravaged by the RPG. It was still there. “Am I going to be able to keep it?” he asked. Highly motivated For months, doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he’s been slowly recovering, have made sure that Winder has the best possible chance of not only keeping his leg but walking again. In fact, Winder has recovered in a way that has shocked his doctors. He’s now walking with a cane. The braces he wore when doctors secured his shattered femur are now gone. Scars on his left leg are visible when he sits, and his black Nike shorts crop up a little. “Imagine someone heating up a pole and putting it in your leg, and imagine that attached to that pole is a bomb,” said Winder’s trauma surgeon, Lt. Cmdr. Elliot Jessie. “We were concerned whether he would keep his leg or not. He had a big injury, a lot of soft tissue damage.” There’s no simple explanation for why Winder has recovered so swiftly, he said. It’s lucky that the RPG missed his femoral artery, sure, said Jessie. But there’s also something intangible about the way soldiers like Winder get better. “He’s a Marine, so he’s highly motivated,” said Jessie. “The first thing they want to know is when can I get back to my unit and when can I get back to being me. … That makes taking care of them relatively easy.” Winder sat in a metal folding chair in a small room at Walter Reed, answering questions from a reporter. He looks like a typical 23-year-old. You have to look closely to see his scars. He speaks clearly and calmly. He’s polite and direct. “I sure didn’t want anyone losing their life over me,” he said, recalling the trepidation soldiers had to work on him. He talks about why he enlisted at 18. No one in his family had been in the military, and it seemed like the right thing to do. He grew up in the Bronx. He joked that being a Dominican-American requires that he love baseball. ‘This is my job’ Some of his buddies from his unit are home now. They have visited him. Two weeks ago, he went with them to take in an Orioles versus Yankees game in Baltimore. He’s a Yankees fan, of course. “They lost but, hey, I got to see them,” Winder jokes. It was so nice to just with them again, be normal, not the guy who went through all this hell. “We went out,” he said. “We drank a little. Did man stuff. … We didn’t really talk about stuff we went through over there.” Winder wants to be able to get on a patch of grass soon and hit a few balls. Of course, he does. He will. When he says this, it isn’t sentimental. His voice has an edge, but he’s not going to lose control of his emotions, especially not in front of a news crew taping his interview for CNN. “What, am I going to sit around and cry about it?” he says. He sees a lot of guys in rough shape at Walter Reed. It’s hard to compare bad experiences in war, but he’s seen guys who’ve had it pretty awful. There were guys in his unit who didn’t come home, Winder is asked. “We had our downs,” he replies. It’s a hard thing to explain to people who haven’t been there. “From the time I got hit, to the time I got knocked out, I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t thinking about it. It would’ve been a big explosion. I wouldn’t have felt a thing,” he said, stressing each word so that he can be better understood. “The thing I was thinking about is: ‘Who is going to lead my Marines? Who is going to take over for me? Are they better off without me?’ ” he said. “That’s everybody’s biggest fear — having to leave your Marines behind. “This is my job. My job included a lot of stuff that may happen. One of those things happened to me. But those guys, those guys, they were there for me.” [/QUOTE] Source: [URL]http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/08/you-have-an-rpg-in-your-leg/[/URL]

I remember seeing a documentary on TV at some point of an RPG that went through the side door of a humvee and lodged itself into a soldiers torso and they couldn't air lift him out with a helicopter because it could have exploded and blown everyone up. Glad this guy is doing okay and they were able to help him, seems like he'll be able to walk again too.

Well atleast it didn't blow up.

Well, he's lucky, if it detonated he'd be dead.

Wow. Balls of steel for everyone involved in this whole thing, Jesus.

That will be a hell of a story to tell to his children.

Too bad he didnt go hulk and rip it out and throw it back.

[url]http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2012/06/01/tsr-dnt-starr-rpg-embedded-in-marine.cnn#/video/bestoftv/2012/06/01/tsr-dnt-starr-rpg-embedded-in-marine.cnn[/url] that fucking video holy SHIT.

I don't think it's quite a sight for sore eyes to see a big chunk of dangerous metal in your leg.

theres a picture i saw recently on apacheclips, showing a 7.62x39mm shot wound to a soldiers leg its a huge hole. huge. but the guys actually making a full recovery from it, if you saw the wound you'd totally think otherwise too

he got impaled by a copy of mass effect 3?

Something similar. Watch at your own risk [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgFQR-jRSW8[/media]

In the movie Black Hawk Down a soldier got impaled by an RPG in his stomach. The movie was based on the Battle of Mogadishu (1993). US Ranger PFC Richard Kowalewski was impaled by an RPG trough a cars door, it got stuck in his stomach but did not detonate. He was one of the 18 american soldiers who died that day.

I wonder if they had to amputate his leg? Sounds like it could've destroyed his artery in his leg.

I believe it would not have gone off. There is a certain range the rpg has to go for it to prime. The velocity is what causes it to prime. At the distance he was at it stopped before it primed fully. ( correct me if I am wrong, I am not to familiar with RPG mechanics)

[QUOTE=shian;36244895]Something similar. Watch at your own risk [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgFQR-jRSW8[/media][/QUOTE] The ingrown toenail I had surgery for yesterday suddenly feels like much less of a deal.

most of the RPGs that insurgents have are horribly old so it's no suprise that most of them are duds there was one video of some dumbass firing one which literally dropped out of the launcher tube and sat there

Reminds me of this: [video=youtube;-amIi0JNLk8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-amIi0JNLk8[/video] Sorry for the potatoe quality of the video. Will use oranges next time.

[QUOTE]“I promise you,” Gennari told Winder. “I will not leave you until that thing is out of your leg.” “Cool,” Winder uttered, and then passed out.[/QUOTE] I couldn't help but laugh how this guy finds nothing out of the ordinary to be wounded by getting a RPG stuck on your leg :v: Gotta tip my hat for that guy for keeping it together.

who the fcuk cares should have hit the cunts head useless meatbag terrorists in uniform

Man, women like scars. Imagine the pussy this guy is going to get when he talks about this.

[QUOTE=Fatfatfatty;36244510]Well, he's lucky, if it detonated he'd be dead.[/QUOTE] Informative post of the year, folks.

Thank goodness it didn't go through the knee, else, the internet would be doomed... I'm glad he's alright, that must have been one hell of a day...

[QUOTE=Maucer;36244940]In the movie Black Hawk Down a soldier got impaled by an RPG in his stomach. The movie was based on the Battle of Mogadishu (1993). US Ranger PFC Richard Kowalewski was impaled by an RPG trough a cars door, it got stuck in his stomach but did not detonate. He was one of the 18 american soldiers who died that day.[/QUOTE] This story definetly reminded me of that. It also reminds me of a story about a marine who was decapitated when a dud RPG hit him in the face while he was driving a humvee. [editline]8th June 2012[/editline] Luckily this guy made it.

How, really close call there. Glad to hear he's alright.

This would have made for an amazing scene in The Hurt Locker Glad it didn't go off or cut any of his arteries, hope he'll walk again.

[QUOTE=Derpmonster;36245495]I believe it would not have gone off. There is a certain range the rpg has to go for it to prime. The velocity is what causes it to prime. At the distance he was at it stopped before it primed fully. ( correct me if I am wrong, I am not to familiar with RPG mechanics)[/QUOTE] No, not exactly. The arming distance on the RPG-7's projectile is 5m, meaning it can detonate against a wall 6m away, and they are often used in point-blank ambush attacks on convoys. The reason why it didn't detonate is a combination of impact material and age. RPGs are designed to be used against vehicles, so their fuses are meant to operate on sudden impact with a solid object, and hitting something less resistant like flesh produces less of a shock. Ordinarily this would still set it off, at the very least causing a detonation after the 4.5 second failsafe, but many of these RPGs are leftovers from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and are heavily degraded. It seems that in this case, the rocket was entirely a dud.

I remember a story about a guy who had a grenade burrow into his skull and not explode. IIRC he lived the rest of his life with it there because they didn't risk taking it out and possibly detonating it, because the trigger was being held down by something in his head. [editline]8th June 2012[/editline] Also, to clarify, it's this kind of grenade: [img]http://www.mkek.gov.tr/Urunler/QPAjQgwN.jpg[/img] Not a hand nade.

[QUOTE=RichyZ;36244374]god damn is he lucky, the rocket somehow missed the femoral artery nice to hear that he could be walking again i suppose[/QUOTE] I suppose?

[QUOTE=Strongbad;36248297]I remember a story about a guy who had a grenade burrow into his skull and not explode. IIRC he lived the rest of his life with it there because they didn't risk taking it out and possibly detonating it, because the trigger was being held down by something in his head. [editline]8th June 2012[/editline] Also, to clarify, it's this kind of grenade: [img]http://www.mkek.gov.tr/Urunler/QPAjQgwN.jpg[/img] Not a hand nade.[/QUOTE] Damn. Lucky he didn't get into a car accident.