3. British soldier had sniper's bullet pulled from his back by comrade after being shot by Taliban
Shot in the back by a Taliban sniper, Lance Sergeant Daniel Collins must have thought his luck had finally run out.
Flattened by the force of the bullet, and in excruciating pain, he begged his platoon leader not to tell him how bad is injury was.
But when L/Sgt Grant Lewis went to his comrade's aid he was amazed to find that the bullet had been slowed down by the body armour and had only just penetrated his skin.
Unbelievably, he could even see the bullet and managed to dig it out with his bare hands.
L/Sgt Collins, of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was left with just a hole in his back and minor bruising.
Mr Collins, 26, was in Southern Helmand Province when he was hit by the sniper's bullet.
He said: 'I knelt down in an irrigation ditch in partial cover when I was hit in the back by a single shot. It must have been from about 200 to 300m away.
'It knocked me down in an instant - it felt like being hit by a sledge-hammer at full swing.
'I was face down in mud but I managed to shout to Sergeant Lewis that I'd had been shot.'
He added: 'He replied in disbelief. So I said again: 'Seriously Grant, I've been shot in the back.
'He crawled over to me, lifted up my body armour and physically removed the bullet with his bare hands.
'I was afraid that I would be bleeding heavily and I told Platoon Sergeant Lewis not to tell him how bad it was.
The strike mark of the bullet where it hit the bottom of Lance Sergeant Collins' ceramic body armour plate
'I was amazed when he said: 'You've just got a bruise - there's no blood.'
Mr Collins, of Cardigan, West Wales, was left in excruciating pain from the bullet wound and was airlifted to an army hospital in Afghanistan where is recovering.
Doctors at the Camp Bastion hospital have told him he would have died if the bullet had struck him just millimetres lower.
He said: 'The bullet hit the very bottom right-hand side of my ceramic body armour back plate, literally right at the edge.
'Any lower and the doctor said that it would have gone straight through me, hitting my kidneys.
'The bullet was a 7.62mm round - that?s a high calibre bullet to be hit by, but it shows you that the body armour works.
'I wouldn't be sitting here now telling you this story if I hadn't been wearing one.
'If I ever meet the person who designed our body armour, I'll buy them a pint.'
Mr Collins joined the Army a few days after his 16th birthday and has served his country for almost 11 years - seeing action in Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Iraq.
His mother Deana, and sister, Megan, who live in Cardigan, have been told of his lucky escape and are hoping he will get home leave before returning to the front line.
Shot in the back by a Taliban sniper, Lance Sergeant Daniel Collins must have thought his luck had finally run out.
Flattened by the force of the bullet, and in excruciating pain, he begged his platoon leader not to tell him how bad is injury was.
But when L/Sgt Grant Lewis went to his comrade's aid he was amazed to find that the bullet had been slowed down by the body armour and had only just penetrated his skin.
Unbelievably, he could even see the bullet and managed to dig it out with his bare hands.
L/Sgt Collins, of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was left with just a hole in his back and minor bruising.
Mr Collins, 26, was in Southern Helmand Province when he was hit by the sniper's bullet.
He said: 'I knelt down in an irrigation ditch in partial cover when I was hit in the back by a single shot. It must have been from about 200 to 300m away.
'It knocked me down in an instant - it felt like being hit by a sledge-hammer at full swing.
'I was face down in mud but I managed to shout to Sergeant Lewis that I'd had been shot.'
He added: 'He replied in disbelief. So I said again: 'Seriously Grant, I've been shot in the back.
'He crawled over to me, lifted up my body armour and physically removed the bullet with his bare hands.
'I was afraid that I would be bleeding heavily and I told Platoon Sergeant Lewis not to tell him how bad it was.
The strike mark of the bullet where it hit the bottom of Lance Sergeant Collins' ceramic body armour plate
'I was amazed when he said: 'You've just got a bruise - there's no blood.'
Mr Collins, of Cardigan, West Wales, was left in excruciating pain from the bullet wound and was airlifted to an army hospital in Afghanistan where is recovering.
Doctors at the Camp Bastion hospital have told him he would have died if the bullet had struck him just millimetres lower.
He said: 'The bullet hit the very bottom right-hand side of my ceramic body armour back plate, literally right at the edge.
'Any lower and the doctor said that it would have gone straight through me, hitting my kidneys.
'The bullet was a 7.62mm round - that?s a high calibre bullet to be hit by, but it shows you that the body armour works.
'I wouldn't be sitting here now telling you this story if I hadn't been wearing one.
'If I ever meet the person who designed our body armour, I'll buy them a pint.'
Mr Collins joined the Army a few days after his 16th birthday and has served his country for almost 11 years - seeing action in Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Iraq.
His mother Deana, and sister, Megan, who live in Cardigan, have been told of his lucky escape and are hoping he will get home leave before returning to the front line.
6. Body Armor Saves Soldier
Staff Sgt. Jeremie Oliver, from Chesterville, Maine, shows off the protection that saved his life after being shot by an insurgent in the Baghdad neighborhood of Ameriya, June 17. Oliver, from Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, was in his Bradley Fighting Vehicle when he took the round to the chest. Oliver was later seen by medical personnel who cleared him for duty. â€oI know I am lucky to walk away from this event; however, I also know that it was not luck that my body armor worked,â€? he said. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jack Androski, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment).
Staff Sgt. Jeremie Oliver, from Chesterville, Maine, shows off the protection that saved his life after being shot by an insurgent in the Baghdad neighborhood of Ameriya, June 17. Oliver, from Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, was in his Bradley Fighting Vehicle when he took the round to the chest. Oliver was later seen by medical personnel who cleared him for duty. â€oI know I am lucky to walk away from this event; however, I also know that it was not luck that my body armor worked,â€? he said. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jack Androski, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment).
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9. Another Body Armor Save
Source
10. Soldier survives sniper's bullet after stopping to eat
Sgt. Jason Glasscock, 27, of Shreveport, La., was struck a sniper’s bullet on June 15. At the time, Glasscock had opened the hatch of his tank and was reaching for an MRE. His body armor stopped the round but as Glasscock put it: “It felt like someone hit me with an iron pipe.”
Cameron Magee / Courtesy of U.S. ArmyBAGHDAD — U.S. soldiers who patrol Iraqi streets have learned, bit by bit, where some of the city’s tastiest snacks are served. Their samplings go well beyond the sweetened tea and flat bread that women and children in Baghdad so often share with passing convoys.
Some seek out whole roasted chickens and vegetables. Some choose ice cream. Some meals, however, prove a little more treacherous.
“Last time we were out here, we ate falafels,” said Spc. Eugene Dolan, 23, of Albertson, N.Y., who is with New York National Guard. “We all got sick.”
One soldier got a little more than that. Sgt. Jason Glasscock, 27, of Shreveport, La., went out on patrol a little after 2 p.m. in an M1A1 tank with 1st Battalion, 156th Armor.
Glasscock didn’t have time to eat before leaving and after about an hour of duty, he decided it was time for lunch. Glasscock popped up his hatch and reached for an MRE.
The next thing he knew, Glasscock felt like someone had struck him with an iron pipe. He was hit by a sniper, and his friends rushed over to see how badly he was hurt. They started ripping off his clothes to find out where he was bleeding.
Turns out that he wasn’t. The bullet hit his body armor, not him. He has a bruise the size of a grapefruit on his stomach, but otherwise, is doing fine.
“They shot me when I was trying to eat my roast beef MRE,” the sergeant said. Apparently, it’s his favorite kind. “I was already soaking wet with sweat so it took a minute to find out I wasn’t bleeding too.”
AdvertisementLearning the ropes
Iraqi soldiers are learning, alongside their American counterparts, how to better secure and defend their capital city from insurgent attacks. They’re learning improved shooting tactics, how to protect fellow soldiers during advances and retreats, and the importance of recording everything on a military form.
So perhaps it’s natural that some Iraqi soldiers have discovered another, often discouraged, part of military life: complaining. And taxes.
1st Lt. Fala Add Al-Kharlim, a platoon leader with a company that patrols Haifa Street in Baghdad, says his soldiers are disheartened because of faulty equipment and shrinking paychecks.
They complain about guns falling apart, about worn flak jackets. They say some use their own money to buy their uniforms on the black market. They collect money for medical care when a fellow soldier is injured. They hear that others are entering the growing Iraqi army at equivalent ranks that Fala’s soldiers say they’ve earned in the last two years.
Fala said some of his soldiers are thinking of quitting. His platoon two years ago had nearly 50 soldiers, he said. Now it’s down to about 30.
“I join to serve my country,” Fala said. “And there is no good jobs in the streets. I have a good rank. I cannot leave my rank.”
The soldiers also are mad about what they call a $70 cut in their monthly pay. Soldiers, on average, earn $300 to $400 a month, they say. The reason, it turns out, is something nearly every American begrudges, whether a soldier or not. For the first time, the Iraqi government began taking taxes out of the platoon’s paychecks.
9. Another Body Armor Save
Source
10. Soldier survives sniper's bullet after stopping to eat
Sgt. Jason Glasscock, 27, of Shreveport, La., was struck a sniper’s bullet on June 15. At the time, Glasscock had opened the hatch of his tank and was reaching for an MRE. His body armor stopped the round but as Glasscock put it: “It felt like someone hit me with an iron pipe.”
Cameron Magee / Courtesy of U.S. ArmyBAGHDAD — U.S. soldiers who patrol Iraqi streets have learned, bit by bit, where some of the city’s tastiest snacks are served. Their samplings go well beyond the sweetened tea and flat bread that women and children in Baghdad so often share with passing convoys.
Some seek out whole roasted chickens and vegetables. Some choose ice cream. Some meals, however, prove a little more treacherous.
“Last time we were out here, we ate falafels,” said Spc. Eugene Dolan, 23, of Albertson, N.Y., who is with New York National Guard. “We all got sick.”
One soldier got a little more than that. Sgt. Jason Glasscock, 27, of Shreveport, La., went out on patrol a little after 2 p.m. in an M1A1 tank with 1st Battalion, 156th Armor.
Glasscock didn’t have time to eat before leaving and after about an hour of duty, he decided it was time for lunch. Glasscock popped up his hatch and reached for an MRE.
The next thing he knew, Glasscock felt like someone had struck him with an iron pipe. He was hit by a sniper, and his friends rushed over to see how badly he was hurt. They started ripping off his clothes to find out where he was bleeding.
Turns out that he wasn’t. The bullet hit his body armor, not him. He has a bruise the size of a grapefruit on his stomach, but otherwise, is doing fine.
“They shot me when I was trying to eat my roast beef MRE,” the sergeant said. Apparently, it’s his favorite kind. “I was already soaking wet with sweat so it took a minute to find out I wasn’t bleeding too.”
AdvertisementLearning the ropes
Iraqi soldiers are learning, alongside their American counterparts, how to better secure and defend their capital city from insurgent attacks. They’re learning improved shooting tactics, how to protect fellow soldiers during advances and retreats, and the importance of recording everything on a military form.
So perhaps it’s natural that some Iraqi soldiers have discovered another, often discouraged, part of military life: complaining. And taxes.
1st Lt. Fala Add Al-Kharlim, a platoon leader with a company that patrols Haifa Street in Baghdad, says his soldiers are disheartened because of faulty equipment and shrinking paychecks.
They complain about guns falling apart, about worn flak jackets. They say some use their own money to buy their uniforms on the black market. They collect money for medical care when a fellow soldier is injured. They hear that others are entering the growing Iraqi army at equivalent ranks that Fala’s soldiers say they’ve earned in the last two years.
Fala said some of his soldiers are thinking of quitting. His platoon two years ago had nearly 50 soldiers, he said. Now it’s down to about 30.
“I join to serve my country,” Fala said. “And there is no good jobs in the streets. I have a good rank. I cannot leave my rank.”
The soldiers also are mad about what they call a $70 cut in their monthly pay. Soldiers, on average, earn $300 to $400 a month, they say. The reason, it turns out, is something nearly every American begrudges, whether a soldier or not. For the first time, the Iraqi government began taking taxes out of the platoon’s paychecks.
