Stick close

[khaosworks]

Reading this story about the posthumous Medal of Honor going to PFC Ross McGinnis, who threw himself on a grenade to save the lives of his fellow soldiers reminded me of a story from my Army days.

During basic training, we were taught how to throw a grenade, and also how to react when a grenade is thrown into our immediate area. The approved procedure is to shout "Grenade!" as a warning, then leap quickly away from it and stay as low as you can. Heroics are not encouraged — after all, a live soldier is always better than a dead one. Well, as long as he's on your side.

While lessons were going on, the instructors had a habit of wandering by, and without warning, dropping a drill grenade (basically a solid hunk of plastic) into our bunch of recruits, just to test our reactions. One time this happened, all of us dutifully yelled "Grenade!" and leapt to the side... except one guy, who threw himself onto the drill grenade.

There was stunned silence. All of us looked up in disbelief. The instructor who threw the drill grenade also stared, nonplussed.

He then turned to the rest of us and intoned calmly and sagely: "Now, listen very carefully. When we actually go to war..."

He pointed at the hero, "Stay close to this guy."

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

1. Good story.
2. How far can you leap away from a grenade inside a tank?

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

You can't. McGinnis truly deserved his CMOH, because everyone was going to be dead but for his sacrifice. Being in a tank or a armored personnel carrier is not as safe as one might imagine, because if bullets get in somehow, or something gets through the armor, the ricochets or the shrapnel will shred whoever's in there. That's why you see pictures of soldiers in Vietnam sitting on top of their M113 APCs, just in case they hit a mine.

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

Brilliant story!

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

Wow! impressive.