My Relic

gimpy

One-Legged Grunt
Full Member
Minuteman
Oct 16, 2011
551
249
42
Illinois
I was digging around and found this. Amazing how something so small has had so much impact on my life.

NtDhwKV.jpg
 
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Gimpy, not everyone has had the same experiences as you have had. Any chance on you sharing with us who haven't got a clue how your di-lithium crystal re-calibrator works, exactly? I know some of us had those, in the past.... but I heard that the wheels fell off. ;)

How did it impact your life so greatly?
 
Every time I see that thing I think about how lucky I am to be alive. It makes me think about how well I have done, given how little control I have over life.
 
My battalion commander dug it out of the berm after I was med-evac'd. He smuggled it back stateside for me. I tend to stick the thing in odd places, then am pleasantly surprised when I see it again. It's a great reminder of just how fortunate I really am.
 
man glad your alive, my dad had a picture of a mortar round split a tree outside his tent in iraq, he was civil service with TACOM and luckily it was a DUD. Still kinda crazy seeing it just planted in the ground with the tent right there not 10 feet away...
 
IED's and RPG's are Mofos.

Luckily, they have enough of a failure rate and the idiots setting them are dumb enough or a WHOLE lot more people would have been maimed/killed.

One of the guys on in the unit we replaced (Battle of Bismark - Great Read - http://www.transportation.army.mil/historian/battle of bismarck/Palm Sunday Ambush.pdf ) got shot in the leg while driving, the bullet went through his thigh from the outside, all the way through missing artery and bone, and punched through the inside of his thigh with the bullet resting against his nuts and the tail of the bullet in his legg.

Another person from the same battle was shot in the head, the bullet went into the Kevlar and went around the inside rim and only grazed the wearer.

I think Gimpy and them both had horseshoes up their ass that day.
 
Damn gimpy, thank you for your sacrifice. During OIF in Nassaryia my amtrack was hit with 2 rpgs that didnt explode, found them stuck in sandbags on gypsey rack afterwords. First time I prayed in what seamed 10 years. Sry for your loss. Delta 4-3 you too brother. Nice trophy you have there... be safe
 
Thank you for your service, and your sacrifice.

Not to compare to what happened to you, but I have the bullet that perforated the right cheek of my ass.
I'll not get rid of that, either.

Is that a million dollar wound? Did you see a nickel of that money?

Seriously thanks to you and gimpy and all our wounded. The most frustrating thing about my job was seeing you guys take fire and not being able to do anything about because of your ROE. Every time I saw tracer or especially RPGs I wanted to level a whole city block for you.

To this day it brings tears to my eyes remembering watching you guys hit target houses and conduct sweeps. Real pros, our soldiers and marines. Real pros.
 
Is that a million dollar wound? Did you see a nickel of that money?

Seriously thanks to you and gimpy and all our wounded. The most frustrating thing about my job was seeing you guys take fire and not being able to do anything about because of your ROE. Every time I saw tracer or especially RPGs I wanted to level a whole city block for you.

To this day it brings tears to my eyes remembering watching you guys hit target houses and conduct sweeps. Real pros, our soldiers and marines. Real pros.

I always give non grunt a hard time (good naturedly of course) but there have been 5 occasions in my life where I felt air support was a true miracle. I'll hug a pilot any day of the week.
 
I wish we could have done more. I know that had the ground commanders said yes more often and cleared us hot that there would be more people alive today. And that will always piss me off. I landed most times with bombs/ammo that should have been extended in defense of ground forces.

Anyway, this thread isn't about that but it always pops in my mind most days and especially when threads like this pop up. It is what it is.

Again, my sincere appreciation to the guys that laid it on the line, who always deserve better leadership and roe than they seem to get. Guess that never changes, but I'd like it to.