In Afghanistan, a battlefield miracle
I’ll settle it: Lance Cpl. Andrew Koenig had a very good Monday. From The Wall Street Journal:
MARJAH, Afghanistan—It is hard to know whether Monday was a very bad day or a very good day for Lance Cpl. Andrew Koenig.
On the one hand, he was shot in the head. On the other, the bullet bounced off him.
In one of those rare battlefield miracles, an insurgent sniper hit Lance Cpl. Koenig dead on in the front of his helmet, and he walked away from it with a smile on his face.
“I don’t think I could be any luckier than this,” Lance Cpl. Koenig said two hours after the shooting.
(snip)
The Casper, Wyo., native was kneeling on the roof of [a] one-story outpost, looking for targets.
He was reaching back to his left for his rifle when the sniper’s round slammed into his helmet.
The impact knocked him onto his back.
“I’m hit,” he yelled to his buddy, Lance Cpl. Scott Gabrian, a 21-year-old from St. Louis.
Lance Cpl. Gabrian belly-crawled along the rooftop to his friend’s side. He patted Lance Cpl. Koenig’s body, looking for wounds.
Then he noticed that the plate that usually secures night-vision goggles to the front of Lance Cpl. Koenig’s helmet was missing. In its place was a thumb-deep dent in the hard Kevlar shell.
Lance Cpl. Gabrian slid his hands under his friend’s helmet, looking for an entry wound. “You’re not bleeding,” he assured Lance Cpl. Koenig. “You’re going to be OK.”
Read the whole thing. There’s more about the major offensive against the Taliban here and here.
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17 comments Add your comment
Carter is a FOOL
February 15th, 2010
8:10 pm
Great story. I would count this as a good day.
Devildog
February 15th, 2010
8:55 pm
We Marines have hard heads
Dusty
February 16th, 2010
12:30 am
Let us give thanks.
Road Scholar
February 16th, 2010
7:41 am
May God continue to protect our troops. He’s a lucky guy!
Rightwing Troll
February 16th, 2010
7:42 am
Thank god. I hope his unit went on to eliminate the sniper.
Del
February 16th, 2010
7:46 am
God bless that Marine and God bless America. Keep them all in your prayers.
Semper Fi
Cutty
February 16th, 2010
8:31 am
No partisan bickering here. A higher power was with him!
Williebkind
February 16th, 2010
8:43 am
This gives me teary eyes!
Jimbo
February 16th, 2010
9:03 am
Yes, a good day indeed.
God bless our troops.
LA
February 16th, 2010
9:26 am
Hey Kyle, great story. On top of that we just captured number 2.
Now, can you please talk about how the scam of global warming is officially over?
It’s all over the news media in GB and elsewhere but the media here, besides FOX, refuses to talk about it.
The Continuing Climate Meltdown
More embarrassments for the U.N. and ’settled’ science.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703630404575053781465774008.html
LA
February 16th, 2010
9:31 am
The college professor who shot and killed people the other day is a leftist who worshiped Obama.
Liberals are terrorists after all.
A family source said Bishop, a mother of four children – the youngest a third-grade boy – was a far-left political extremist who was “obsessed” with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.
“She was an oddball – just not very sociable,” said Sylvia Fluckiger, a former lab technician who worked with Bishop in 1993.
Bishop acknowledged at the time being questioned in the bombing attempt of a Harvard medical doctor evaluating her on doctorate work, a professor with whom Bishop was known to quarrel, Fluckiger said.
Reyes confirmed he is working with the FBI to learn more about why Bishop was a suspect in the attempted bombing of Dr. Paul Rosenberg, who received a double-pipe bomb in the mail on Dec. 19, 1993. He ran from his Newton home with his wife, escaping without injury. The bomb never exploded.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?&articleid=1232943&format=&page=1&listingType=Loc#articleFull
Trusslady
February 16th, 2010
1:19 pm
The militia nut job who bombed the Oklahoma City Murrah building was a neo-con. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing
Conservatives are terrorists after all.
saywhat?
February 16th, 2010
6:27 pm
Don’t forget Eric Rudolph, another liberal terrorist bomber, right LA?
Intown Lib
February 16th, 2010
10:10 pm
Good story. Wish there were more stories like this and fewer of our men being killed over there to destabilize and crush and insurgency that should’ve been crushed under our former Commander in Chief if he hadn’t pushed Iraq on America.
dewstarpath
February 17th, 2010
8:37 am
LA SmashsmeeshaFraud –
– Where is the “Obama connection” in the article you posted about
Amy Bishop ?
And if she is such a wack job, how did she get hold of a firearm ?
Could it be that repealing gun laws helped to arm her, or maybe a
“real patriot” such as yourself sold her one at a gun/knife show ?
dewstarpath
February 17th, 2010
8:40 am
LA – “family source” is not an OFFICIAL source.
dewstarpath
February 17th, 2010
8:43 am
- And what does any of this have to do with global warming,
the “off topic” you want to discuss so badly with Kyle ?