LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With QuoteWell done that man!
What a cool brave guy ,salute .
hey Herr Lukins , i bet this reminds you of when you were surrounded under heavy pressure and you threw a spear back at the Zulus
A soldier serving with the British Army in Afghanistan has told of the moment he threw back a Taliban hand grenade, telling himself: "I've really only got one chance to do this."
Rifleman James McKie from Recce Platoon, 3rd Battalion The Rifles was under fire from three directions on a roof when the grenade hit his platoon commander and landed at his feet.
"My first thought was I hope this doesn't hurt too much," the New Zealander said. "That, and I've really only got one chance to do this.
"If it fails, either way, doing nothing, I'm going to get the same amount of hurt. So I picked it up and threw it off the roof."
It exploded in mid-air just seconds later, sending shrapnel flying.
A media statement from The Rifles at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, which carried McKie's account, said his actions helped to save the lives of his commander and one other soldier who were involved in a fire-fight in the Sangin area of Helmand province, where six British soldiers have been killed in the last week. "We were in a high position on a compound roof," McKie went on. "There was no way you could throw yourself off and not get injured, so I made a decision to pick up the grenade and throw it off the roof.
"I tried to throw it properly, to clear the roof. I didn't want to do it half-arsed and have them throw it back at us or anything like that.
"I remember thinking that if I didn't pull this off, it was going to hurt. But at that stage I was pretty much committed."
McKie sustained fragmentation injuries to his right arm and face as the grenade exploded mid air, close to where he stood.
Fragmentation also hit his Platoon commander Captain Graeme Kerr who received leg injuries and who is recovering at Selly Oak Hospital in Britain.
"In retrospect, people keep telling me how brave I am, which I'm slightly embarrassed about," said McKie, who previously served in the New Zealand army.
"I'd like to think that anyone in that situation would have done the same or something similar because you can't just sit there and let yourself or other people get hurt.
"I don't feel particularly brave. I thought: I have to do this to survive
TANKIE.
Well done that man!
Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C
Something I find incredibly amazing, and I see this mainly with soldiers, as that they perform acts of heroism with nary a second thought. For a civilian or a reporter it's a great story, but the soldier couldn't really care less. Every single time you read a story like this you always hear the soldier say something to the effect of:
""In retrospect, people keep telling me how brave I am, which I'm slightly embarrassed about," said McKie, who previously served in the New Zealand army.
"I'd like to think that anyone in that situation would have done the same or something similar because you can't just sit there and let yourself or other people get hurt.
"I don't feel particularly brave. I thought: I have to do this to survive""
It really says something about our soldiers than while lots of people would immediately write a book, they just get back to work.
Good on ya, mate!
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.
Maybe this sums things up about soldiers, a true story in song , played in Key of A .Originally Posted by bigross86
YouTube - the british soldier
TANKIE.
Beautiful song. But this isn't just the domain of British soldiers, it's soldiers all over the world. I can give you a few examples:
Roi Klein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nathan Elbaz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bruce W. Carter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peter S. Connor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donald E. Ballard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jedh Colby Barker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The list goes on and on. Hell, I can give a personal example from my own service, when I was in Lebanon.
For the first time in the war we maneuvered from one location to the other in daylight in an area we knew to have Hezbollah troops with Kornet and Metis AT missiles. (We worked mainly at night, when it was safer for us.) My tank was the first tank in the battalion column of 15 tanks. Not for a second calling myself a hero, but think about the balls needed by everyone to put it out there time and again, knowing that in the next second you could be a very nicely charred piece of flesh. Hell, that was the time that I was scared the most during the whole war. But the driver pressed down on the gas, we hit it, I scanned like crazy, and we got through ok. I saw some people, but we didn't know if they were Hezbollah or not, and we got to our next location without anything happening to us.
Another example from my unit from Lebanon is about Maj. Benayah Rein. Benayah was slated to take command of my company right as war broke out, so our original CO stayed with us. Since Benayah couldn't (and wouldn't) go back to his old unit, he took a tank and found 3 tank commanders and used them as his personal crew, calling himself "Force Benayah". One time Force Benayah, while under fire, rescued 8 Combat Engineers from a disabled Puma. Minutes after the Engineers departed the Puma was hit by another AT missile.
Another time, he was instrumental in rescuing a large force of Nahal soldiers who were hit as well, again under fire. During one of his rescue missions Benayah's tank was hit by a Kornet and all 4 crew members died. For his actions Benayah was given a Head of Regional Command Citation.
Just for comparisons sake, in the IDF, medals and decorations are given out very sparingly. Our most decorated soldier, Ehud Barak has 5 medals in 35 years of service
Bit of a rant and got sidetracked, sorry...
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.
Very true mate , the thread is about a Kiwi soldier serving in the british army , the song is fact about a British soldier in N/I , im not detracting from acts of bravery from around the world , i would even bet that the tallies have songs about acts of bravery from their side as well , same as the vietnamese i spose ,and as you point out Mjr Klein etc ,and in the last war ,the Yanks had lots (Audey Murphy for one, ) as did the Germans , i was trying to show that a soldierS lot is not always a happy one regardless of race ,army, rank ,or tank , its what we did ,and got on with it ,,,,, nice humanised rant tho ,stay safe bud
Last edited by tankie; 10 Mar 10, at 10:31.
TANKIE.
Always. You old fogeys need a young whippersnapper troublemaker to keep y'all in shape and on your toes. I ain't going anywhere, not if I can help it... Well, maybe to club a girl over the head and drag her into the cave to cook for me, but that's about it.nice humanised rant tho ,stay safe bud
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.
It ain't worth it. Learn to cook for yourself. You'll sleep much better.
Chimo
I know how to cook for myself, I'm pretty good at it too. I'm just lazy...
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.
That was at a time when men were men and women were women. Anyway the powder was wet and I had lost me flint. Nothing like a tad of skirmish before breakfast. I remember saying to Rustyrattleship, who was on the west wall, "if yer see anyone coming fire two warning shots right through his head"What a cool brave guy ,
hey Herr Lukins , i bet this reminds you of when you were surrounded under heavy pressure and you threw a spear back at the Zulus)
i bet this reminds you of when you were surrounded under heavy pressure and you threw a spear back at the Zulus
Out of water, low on ammunition and surrounded by howling savages...
Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
(Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)
Reminds me of when my ex wanted me to spend time with her friends. There's a reason she's my ex...Out of water, low on ammunition and surrounded by howling savages...
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.
Brave man!Reminds me of when my ex wanted me to spend time with her friends. There's a reason she's my ex...
Seriously, I have to admire the alacrity of this mans action, saving himself and his mates from injury. I am truly impressed. Some would say that given a limited number of choices he made the one that made the most sense. Yeah, right.
I have been on the range and had someone drop a grenade. What did I do? Made a dive over the sandbags, selfishly and successfully saving my OWN skin. Of course my CO was right behind me if a half second slower.
It takes a brave man to throw a grenade back. Every day of my life I am pained by torn cartilage I got diving away from a grenade a terr threw back. Even if there had been enough time (probably not) would I have tried to throw it back? Charitably I could say maybe but (my) history tells a different story.
Hats off to Rifleman McKie!
Last edited by sappersgt; 10 Mar 10, at 00:26.
Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
(Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)
That was at a time when men were men and women were women.
Ah yes , what changing times we live in huh , but i bow to your better knowledge of the ways of transvestisms and the like
Anyway the powder was wet and I had lost me flint. Nothing like a tad of skirmish before breakfast. I remember saying to Rustyrattleship, who was on the west wall, "if yer see anyone coming fire two warning shots right through his head"
And was he in his Ironclad vessel then , the forerunner of the most desirable veh ever ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, the TANK ,,, gwan throw yer spears then , canister traverse left ,
Speaking of bravery , wheres K/A these days , maybe he is on some RnR with some dusky punjabi gal , or maybe he is finding his initiation into army life not as romantic as the posters make out huh
TANKIE.
I cant recall in the movie , any women being thereOut of water, low on ammunition and surrounded by howling savages...
TANKIE.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Share this thread with friends: